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I 



NO,” HE MURMURED, SADLY. “ IT IS NOT LAND. IT < IS 


WRECKAGE 


Paa^ 71, 


The 

Ijie of Dead Ships 


Br 

CRITTENDEN MARRIOTT 


With illustrations by 
FRANK McKERNAN 



Philadelphia If! London 

J. B. Lippincott Company 

1909 



Copyright, 1908 
By Crittenden Marriott 

Copyright, 1909 
By J. B. Lippincott Company 


Published September, 1909 


0 StK 27 IMW 

r; j 248133 

|, SEP 29 t903 



Printed by J. B. Lippincott Company 
The Washington Square Press, Philadelphia, U. S, A. 


PROLOGUE 


Theke is a floating island in the sea 
where no explorer has set foot, or, set- 
ting foot, has returned to tell of what 
he saw. Lying at our very doors, in the 
direct path of every steamer from the 
Gulf of Mexico to Europe, it is less known 
than is the frozen pole. Encyclopedias 
pass over it lightly; atlases dismiss it 
with but a slight mention; maps do not 
attempt to portray its ever-shifting out- 
lines; even the Sunday newspapers, so 
keen to grasp everything of interest, 
ignore it. 

But on the decks of great ships in the 
long watches of the night, when the trade- 
wind snores through the rigging and the 
waves purr about the bows, the sailor 
tells strange tales of the spot where 
ruined ships, raked derelict from all the 
square miles of ocean, form a great 
5 


PROLOGUE 


island, ever changing, ever wasting, yet 
ever lasting; where, in the ballroom of 
the Atlantic, draped round with encircling 
weed, they drone away their lives, bal- 
ancing slowly in a mighty tourbillion to 
the rhythm of the Gulf Stream. 

Fanciful! Sailors’ tales! Stories fit 
only for the marines ! Perhaps ! Yet be 
not too sure! Jack Tar, slow of speech, 
fearful of ridicule, knows more of the 
sea than he will tell to the newspapers. 
Perhaps more than one has drifted to the 
isle of dead ships, and escaped only to be 
disbelieved in the maelstroms that await 
him in all the seaports of the world. 

Facts are facts, none the less because 
passed on only by word of mouth, and 
this tale, based on matter gleaned beneath 
the tropic stars, may be truer than men 
are wont to think. Remember Longfel- 
low’s words: 

‘‘Wouldst thou,” thus the steersman answered, 

“ Learn the secret of the sea ? 

Only those that brave its dangers 
Comprehend its mystery.” 


THE 

ISLE of DEAD SHIPS 


I 


As the prisoner and OiGficer Jackson, 
handcuffed together, came up the gang- 
plank, Eenfrew, the attorney, standing 
on the promenade deck above, turned 
from his contemplation of the city of San 
Juan as it lay green and white in the 
afternoon sun, and bent forward. 

By George,” he cried, exultingly, 
that’s Frank Howard! He’s caught! 
Caught here, of all places in the world ! ’ ’ 
With hands tight gripped on the rail 
he watched the two men until they disap- 
peared below; then, eager to share his 
discovery of the ending of a quest that 
had extended over two continents, he 
turned and hurried along the deck to 
7 


8 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


where two ladies stood leaning against 
the taffrail. 

‘‘Yes, my dear,’’ the elder was saying, 
“Porto Eico is pretty enough for any 
one. It looked pretty when I came, and 
it looks prettier as I go. But when you 
say it’s pretty, you exhaust its excel- 
lences. I, for one, shall be glad to see 
the last of it. And, considering the er- 
rand that takes you home, I imagine that 
you don’t regret leaving, either.” 

“The errand! I don’t understand, 
Mrs. Eenfrew.” 

“Why! Your — but here comes Philip, 
evidently with something on his mind. 
Do listen to him patiently, if you can, 
my dear. He hasn’t had a jury at his 
mercy for a month. Unless somebody 
lets him talk, I’m afraid his bottled-up 
eloquence will strike in and prove fatal. 
Well, Philip!” 

Mr. Eenfrew was close at hand. 

“Miss Fairfax! Maria!” he cried. 
“Who do you think is on board, a pris- 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 9 


oner? Frank Howard! I just saw him 
brought over the gang-plank. He escaped 
two months ago, and the police have been 
looking for him ever since. They must 
have just caught him, or I should have 
heard of it. Wlio in the world can I 
ask?^’ 

He gazed around questioningly. 

‘‘Now, Philip, wait a moment. Who is 
Frank Howard? and what has the poor 
man done?’’ 

Mr. Kenfrew snorted. 

“The poor man, Maria,” he retorted, 
“is one of the biggest scoundrels unhung. 
As state’s attorney it was my duty to 
prosecute him, and I may say that I 
have seldom taken more pleasure in any 
task. I have spoken to you of the case 
often enough, Maria, for you to know 
something about it. I should really he 
glad if you would take some interest in 
your husband’s affairs.” 

Mrs. Eenfrew clapped her hands. 

“Of course! I remember now,” she 


10 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


said, soothingly. ‘‘It was only his name 
I forgot. Mr. Howard is that swindler 
who robbed so many poor people, isnT 
he, Philip r’ 

“Nothing of the sort, madam,’’ thimd- 
ered the lawyer. “Frank Howard was 
an of&cer of the United States Navy. 
While stationed at this very island of 
Porto Eico he secretly married an ignor- 
ant but very beautiful girl, and then de- 
serted her. She followed him to New 
York, and wrote him a letter telling him 
where she was. He went to her address 
and murdered her — strangled her with 
his own hands. He was caught red- 
handed, convicted, and would have been 
put to death before now if he hadn’t 
escaped. i 

“I am telling this for your benefit, Miss 
Fairfax. There is no use in talking to 
Mrs. Eenfrew; details of my affairs go 
in one of her ears and out the other.” 

“That may not be as uncommon as 
you think, Mr. Eenfrew,” consoled the 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 11 


girl, laughing. as it happens, I am 

especially interested in the Howard case. 
I am very well acquainted with one of 
the officers who was on his ship when 
he met the girl.’^ 

Mrs. Eenfrew clapped her hands. 

‘‘Oh! of course,’’ she bubbled. “Of 
course ! I remember all about it now. It 
was Mr. Loving, of course! I had for- 
gotten that he was on the same ship. 
Philip, you didn’t know that Miss Fairfax 
was going to marry Lieutenant Loving, 
did youP’ 

Mr. Eenfrew turned his eye-glasses on 
the girl, who flushed with mingled anger 
and amusement. 

“Are you a seventh daughter of a 
seventh daughter, Mrs. Eenfrew,” she 
inquired, ‘ ‘ that you can read the future ? 
I assure you that I have had no advance 
information on the matter. Mr. Loving 
hasn’t even asked me yet. But, of course, 
if you know ” 

“Good gracious! Isn’t it true? Why, 


12 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


I got a paper from New York to-day that 
spoke of it as all settled. The paper is 
in my state-room now. If yon’d like to 
see it, we’ll go down. Philip, find out 
all you can about Mr. Howard, and tell 
ns just as soon as you can.” 

Mr. Kenfrew nodded. 

‘^I’ll go and ask the captain,” he 
promised, as the two ladies turned away. 

The captain, however, proved not to be 
communicative. Not only was he too 
busy with the preparations for departure, 
but he was nettled because the presence 
of the convict on board had become 
known. Convicts are not welcome pas- 
sengers on ships, like the Queen, whose 
chief office is to carry presumably timid 
pleasure passengers, and their presence 
is always carefully concealed. 

know nothing at all about it, Mr. 
Eenfrew,” he asserted, gruffiy. ‘‘You 
had better ask the purser.” 

The purser was no more pleased at the 
inquiry than his chief had been, but he 
hid his vexation better. 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 13 


^‘Yes,” he admitted, with apparent 
readiness, ‘^Mr. Howard is on board. He 
was canght here last week. He was up 
at a village called Lagonitas ’’ 

‘^That’s where his wife lived — the one 
he murdered.’’ 

^^Is it? I didn’t know. Well, they 
caught him. He surrendered quietly — 
didn’t try to fight or run. He hadn’t 
anywhere to run to, you know.” 

‘‘And where is he confined?” 

“ Amidships — in one of the second- 
class cabins. We have plenty vacant this 
trip. Officer Jackson is with him, where 
he can keep close watch. You tell your 
ladies not to be uneasy. He can’t pos- 
sibly get out. Jackson has got a hundred 
weight of iron, more or less, on him.” 

‘ ‘Jackson, is it ? I thought I recognized 
him. One of those bulldog fellows that 
never lets go. I’m interested in Howard 
because it was I who conducted the prose- 
cution at his trial.” 

“Gee! Is that so? It must have been 
exciting. He confessed, didn’t he?” 


14 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 

‘‘Confessed? Not he! Took the stand 
as brazen as you please, and swore he 
had never seen the woman before he went 
to her room that day in response to a 
letter and found her dead. It was noth- 
ing less than barefaced impudence, you 
know. The proof against him was simply 
overwhelming. ’ ’ 

“He denied having married her, 
then?’^ 

“He denied everything. Swore it was 
a case of mistaken identity. I demolished 
that quickly enough. Dozens of people 
had seen him up at Lagonitas with the 
girl. We even sent for the minister who 
performed the marriage ceremony, but 
he never arrived — ^lost at sea on the way 
to New York. But there was plenty of 
proof, anyway. The jury found him 
guilty without leaving their seats.’’ 


II 


When Dorothy Fairfax came on deck 
again the sun was dropping fast toward 
the horizon. A gusty breeze was blowing 
and the steamer was pitching slightly in 
the short, choppy seas that characterize 
West Indian waters. Movement had be- 
come unpleasant to those inclined to sea- 
sickness and this, combined with the com- 
parative lightness of the passenger list, 
caused the deck of the Queen to be nearly 
deserted. 

Dorothy was glad of it. She wanted 
solitude in order to think in peace, and 
there was seldom solitude for her when 
young men — or old men, for that matter 
— were near. They seemed to gravitate 
naturally to her side. 

Mrs. Eenfrew’s words, and especially 
the paragraph in the New York paper, 
were troubling her. She could see the 

15 


16 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


words now, published under a San Juan 
date-line: 

M’ss Dorothy Fairfax, daughter of the multi- 
millionaire railroader, John Fairfax, will sail next 
week for New York to order her trousseau for her 
coming marriage with Lieutenant Loving, U. S. N. 
Mr. Fairfax, who is financing the railroad here, will 
follow in about three weeks.” 

That was all ; the whole thing taken for 
granted! Evidently the writer had sup- 
posed that the engagement had been 
already announced, or he would either 
have made some inquiry or — supposing 
that he was determined to publish — ^would 
have spread’’ himself on the subject. 
Miss Fairfax had been written up enough 
to know that her engagement would be 
worth at least a column to the society 
editors of the New York papers. Yes, 
she concluded, the item must have ema- 
nated from some chance correspond- 
ent who had picked up a stray bit of 
gossip. 

She had known Mr. Loving for two 
years or more, and had liked him. Three 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 17 


months before, at the close of the Howard 
trial, she had become convinced that he 
intended to ask her to marry him, and 
she had slipped away to join her father 
in Porto Eico in order to gain time to 
think before deciding on her answer. And 
here she was, returning home, no more 
resolved than when she had left. 

It was odd that her ship should also 
bear Lieutenant Howard, of whom Mr. 
Loving had been so fond, standing by 
him all through his trial when everybody 
else fell away. She had had a glimpse 
of Mr. Howard once, and vaguely recalled 
him, wondering what combination of des- 
perate circumstances could have brought 
a man like him to the commission of such 
a crime. 

The judge, she remembered, in sentenc- 
ing him to death had declared that no 
mercy should be shown to one who, with 
everything to keep him in the straight 
path, had deliberately gone wrong. 

The soft pad of footsteps on the deck 
2 


18 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


roused her from her musings, and she 
turned to see the purser drawing near. 

‘‘Ah! Good evening, Miss Fairfax!’’ 
he ventured. “We missed you at tea. 
Feeling the motion a bit? It is a little 
rough, ain’t it?” 

Miss Fairfax did not like the purser, 
hut she found it difficult to snub any one. 
Therefore she answered the man pleas- 
antly, though not with any especial en- 
thusiasm. 

“Why! no, Mr. Sprigg. I don’t con- 
sider this rough ; I’m rather a good sailor, 
you know. I simply wasn’t hungry at 
tea-time. ’ ’ 

Mr. Sprigg came closer. 

“By the way. Miss Fairfax,” he in- 
sinuated. “You know Lieutenant How- 
ard is on hoard. If you’d like to have 
a peep at him, just say the word and 
I’ll manage. Oh!” he added, hastily, 
as a slight frown marred Miss Fairfax’s 
pretty brows, “ I know you must be in- 
terested in his case. He’s a friend of 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 19 


Lieutenant Loving, and I read the notice 
in the paper to-day, you know.’’ 

The look the girl gave him drove the 
smirk in haste from his face. 

‘‘The notice in the paper was entirely 
without foundation, Mr. Sprigg,” she de- 
clared, coldly. “As for seeing Mr. 
Howard, I’m afraid my tastes do not run 
in that direction. Besides, he probably 
would not like to be stared at. He was 
a gentleman once, you know.” 

She turned impatiently away and 
looked eastward. Then she uttered an 
exclamation. 

“Why! Whatever ’s happened to the 
water?” she cried. 

The question was not surprising. In 
the last hour the sea had changed. From 
a smiling playfellow, lightly butfeting the 
ship, it had grown cold and sullen. The 
sparkles had died from the waves, giving 
place to a metallic lustre. Long, slow 
undulations swelled out of the southeast, 
chasing each other sluggishly up in the 
wake of the ship. 


so THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


It did not need a sailor’s eye to tell 
that something was brewing. Miss Fair- 
fax shivered slightly and drew her light 
wrap closer around her. 

‘‘Makes you feel cold, don’t itl” asked 
Mr. Sprigg cheerfully. “ Lord bless you, 
that’s nothing to the way you’ll feel be- 
fore it’s over. Funny the weather bureau 
didn’t give us any storm warnings before 
we sailed.” 

The weather bureau had, but the warn- 
ings had been thrown away, unposted, by 
a sapient native official of San Juan, who 
considered the efforts of the Americans 
to foretell the weather to be immoral. 

“Will there be any danger!” 

“Danger! Naw! Not a bit of it. If 
you stay below, you won’t even know that 
there’s been anything doing. Even if we 
run into a hurricane, which ain’t likely, 
we’ll be just as safe as if we were ashore. 
The Queen don’t need to worry about 
anything short of an island or a derelict.” 

“A derelict!” 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS SI 


‘‘Sure. A ship that has been aban- 
doned at sea for some reason or other, 
but that ainT been broken up or sunk. 
Derelicts are real terrors, all right.” 

“Some of ^em float high; they ain’t so 
bad, because you can usually see ’em in 
time to dodge, and because they ain’t 
likely to be solid enough to do you much 
damage even if you do run into them. 
But some of ’em float low — just awash — 
and they’re just — Well, they’re mighty 
bad. They ain’t really ships any more; 
they’re solid bulks of wood.” 

“I suppose they are all destroyed 
sooner or later?” 

The little purser unconsciously struck 
an attitude. “A good deal later, some- 
times,” he qualified. “Derelicts have 
been known to float for three years in 
the Atlantic, and to travel for thousands 
of miles. Generally, however, in the 
North Atlantic, they either break up in a 
storm within a few months, or else they 
drift into the Sargasso Sea and stay 
there till they sink.” 


22 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


‘‘The Sargasso Sea? Where is that? 
I suppose I used to know when I went 
to school, but IVe forgotten.’’ 

Mr. Sprigg waved his hand toward the 
east and north. “Yonder,” he general- 
ized vaguely. “We are on the western 
edge of it now. See the weed floating in 
the water there ? Farther north and east 
it gets thicker until it collects into a solid 
mass that stretches five hundred miles in 
every direction. 

“Nobody knows just what it looks like 
in the middle, for nobody has ever been 
there; or, rather, nobody has ever been 
there and come back to tell about it. Old 
sailors say that there’s thousands of dere- 
licts collected there.” 

“The Gulf Stream encircles the whole 
ocean in a mighty whirlpool, you know, 
and sooner or later everything floating in 
the North Atlantic is caught in it. They 
may be carried away up to the North 
Pole, but they’re bound to come south 
again with the icebergs and back into the 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 23 


main stream, and some day they get into 
the west-wind drift and are carried down 
the Canary current, until the north equa- 
torial current catches them, and sweeps 
them into the sea over yonder/’ 

‘‘For four hundred years and more — 
ever since Columbus — derelicts must have 
been gathering there. Millions of them 
must have sunk, but thousands must have 
been washed into the center. Once there, 
they must float for a long time. There 
are storms there, of course, but they’re 
only wind- storms — there can’t be any 
waves; the weed is too thick.” 

“I guess there are ships still afloat 
there that were built hundreds of years 
ago. Maybe Columbus’s lost caravels are 
there ; maybe people are imprisoned 
there! Gee! but it’s fascinating.” 

Miss Fairfax stared at the little man 
in amazement. He was the last person 
she would ever have suspected of imagi- 
nation or romance ; and here he was, with 
flushed cheeks and sparkling eyes, de- 


24 < THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


claiming away like one inspired. Most 
men can talk well on some one subject, 
and this subject was Mr. Sprigg’s own. 
For years he had been reading and talk- 
ing and thinking about it. 

Miss Fairfax rose from her steamer - 
chair and looked around her, then paused, 
awestruck. Down in the southeast a mass 
of black clouds darkened the day as they 
spread. Puffs of wind ran before them, 
each carrying sheets of spray torn from 
the tops of the waves ; one stronger than 
the rest dashed its burden into Miss Fair- 
fax’s face with little stinging cuts. The 
cry of the stewards, ‘‘All passengers be- 
low!” was not needed to tell her that the 
deck was rapidly becoming no place for 


women. 


Ill 


An hour later the deck had grown dan- 
gerous, even for men. The Queen drove 
diagonally through the waves, rolling far 
to right and to left; and at each roll a 
miniature torrent swept aboard her, ham- 
mered on her tightly-fastened doors, and 
passed, cataract-wise, back into the deep. 
Scarcely could the officers, high on the 
bridge, clinging to stanchions and shield- 
ed by strong sheets of canvas, keep their 
footing. Overhead hooted the gale. 

It grew dark. To the gloom of the 
storm had been added the blackness of 
the night. Literally, no man could see his 
hand before his face ; even the white foam 
that broke upon the decks or against the 
sides passed invisibly. 

Still, the ship drove on, held relentless- 
ly to her course. For it was necessary 
to pass the western line of the weed- 
25 


^6 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


bound sea before turning to the north; 
and, until this was done, the Queen could 
not turn tail to the storm. 

Toward morning Captain Bostwick 
struggled to the chart-house and, for the 
twentieth time, bent over the sheet, figur- 
ing and measuring. Then, with careful 
precision, he punched a dot in the sur- 
face and drew a long breath. 

‘‘We are all right now,’’ he announced. 
“We can bear away north with safety. 
Nothing can harm us, unless ” 

He opened the last chart of the Hydro- 
graphic Office and noted some lines drawn 
in red. His brow grew anxious again 
and he drew his breath. 

“Confound that derelict! ” he mut- 
tered. “Allowing for drift, she should 
be close to this very spot. If we should 
strike her ” 

The sentence was never finished. With 
a shivering shock like that of a railroad 
train in a head-on collision, the Queen 
stopped dead, hurling the captain violent- 
ly over the rail to the deck below. 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 27 


The first officer was clutching the rope 
of the siren when the crash came. Tlie 
slight support it afforded before it gave 
way saved him from following his com- 
mander, and at the same time sent a 
raucous warning through the ship to close 
the collision bulkheads. 

As he clung desperately to the rail, the 
Queen rose in the air and came down with 
another crash; then went forward over 
something that grated and tore at her 
hull as she passed. But her bows were 
buried in the waves, while her screw 
lashed the air madly. 

Had not the involuntary warning of 
the siren sounded, and had it not been 
obeyed instantly, the Queen would have 
plunged in that heart-breaking moment to 
the bottom. As it was, her shrift seemed 
short. 

The force of her impact on the lumber- 
laden, water-logged derelict had shat- 
tered her bows, and only the forward 
bulkhead, strained, split, gaping in a hun- 
dred seams where the rivets had been 


28 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 

wrenched loose, kept out the sea, A 
hurried inspection showed that even that 
frail protection would probably not long 
suffice. 

‘‘It’s only an hour to dawn,” gasped 
the first officer. “If she can last till 
then— — ” 

She lasted, but dawn showed a des- 
perate state of affairs. The Queen had 
swung round, until her submerged bow 
pointed to windward and her high stern, 
catching the gale, plunged dully north- 
ward. The seas, rushing up from the 
southeast, broke on the shelving deck 
like rollers on a beach, and sent the salt 
spume writhing up the planks and into 
the deck state-rooms. 

The engine and all the forward part of 
the ship were drowned, but the great din- 
ing-saloon and the staircase leading to 
the social hall above were still compara- 
tively dry. In the latter and on the deck 
just outside of it the passengers were 
huddled. The captain had disappeared. 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 29 


licked away by tbe first tongue of sea 
that had followed the collision. 

With the earliest streak of light the 
first officer decided to take to the boats. 
Only three remained, and these had 
already been fitted out with provisions. 

As the crew and passengers filed into 
the first, Officer Jackson, who had several 
times come on deck, only to wander rest- 
lessly below again, once more plunged 
down into the darkness. 

Rapidly yet cautiously he lowered him- 
self down the sloping passageway, clutch- 
ing at the jambs of empty state-rooms to 
keep himself from sliding down against 
the bulkhead, on the other side of which 
the sea muttered angrily. At last he 
gained the door he sought, and clung to 
it while he fitted a key into the lock. 

The electric lights had gone out when 
the engine stopped, and not a thing could 
be seen in the blackness, but a stir within 
told that the room was tenanted. Some 
one was there, staring toward the door. 


30 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


Jackson lost no time. 

‘‘Here yon!’’ he blustered, in a voice 
into which there crept a quiver in spite 
of him. “Last call! The ship’s sinking 
and they’re taking to the boats. You got- 
ter decide mighty quick if you’re going 
to come. Just gimme your parole and 
I’ll turn you loose to fight for your life.” 

A voice answered promptly: 

“I’ll give no parole. I’d a deal sooner 
drown here than hang on shore. You can 
do just as you please about releasing 
me. It’s a matter of inditference to me.” 

The officer tried to protest. 

“I don’t want your death on my shoul- 
ders, Mr. Howard,” he muttered. “Don’t 
put me to it.” 

Howard laughed sardonically. 

“What the devil do I care about your 
shoulders?” he demanded. “Turn me 
loose, quick, or get out. Your company 
isn’t exhilarating, my good Jackson.” 

Both men had raised their voices so as 
to be heard above the boom of the storm. 
As Howard ceased, there came an impact 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 31 

heavier than before, followed by faint, 
despairing shrieks. 

With an oath, Jackson felt his way to 
the voice and bent over the berth in which 
his prisoner was lying. ‘ ‘ Cnrse you ! ’ ’ he 
snarled. ‘‘For two cents I’d take you at 
your word and let you drown. But T 
can’t. Here!” 

The clink of a key and the rattle of 
metal told that the handcutfs fell away. 

“You’re loose now,” continued the offi- 
cer. “But, by Heaven, if you try to es- 
cape, I’ll see that you don’t miss the death 
you say is welcome. Come on.” 

Howard swung his legs over the edge 
of the berth. 

“That’s fair,” he said. “Go ahead. 
I’ll follow.” 

Hastily, Jackson led the way up the 
slanting passage to the topsy-turvy stair- 
way, and so to the deck. A single glance 
about him and he turned on the other in 
fury. “Curse you,” he roared, “you’ve 
drowned us both with your infernal pala- 
vering!” 


32 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


The decks were deserted; not a human 
being remained on them. Tossing on the 
waves, just visible in the glowing light, 
were two of the ship^s boats, crowded 
with passengers. The nearest was al- 
ready a hundred yards away, and rapidly 
increasing its distance. The guard stared 
at it hungrily. 

There goes our last chance!’’ he mut- 
tered. 

Howard eyed the tiny craft dispassion- 
ately. 

‘ ‘ Oh ! I don ’t know, ’ ’ he said. ‘ ‘ If that 
boat was your best chance, it was a slim 
one. Never mind, Jackson ; take comfort 
from me. Nobody doomed to hang was 
ever drowned. I’ll send you home to 
your wife and babies yet — ^I suppose you 
have a wife and babies; people like you 
always do.” 

‘‘Here! Don’t you take my wife’s 
name on your lips ! ’ ’ 

“Look! I thought so.” 

The boat, poised for an instant on the 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 33 


crest of a great wave, suddenly lunged 
forward, raced madly down a watery 
slope, and thrust its nose deep into an 
opposite swelling wave. It did not come 
up. Long did the two men on the steamer 
watch, hut nothing, living or dead, ap- 
peared amid the heaving waves. 

At last Howard ^s tense features re- 
laxed. 

^‘Well,’’ he remarked, carelessly. 
‘‘That’s a mark to my credit, anyhow. 
I’ve saved your life, Jackson. Please see 
that you do me no discredit in the ten 
minutes that you will retain it. ’ ’ 

The other glared at him stupidly. 

“Susan didn’t want me to come,” he 
mumbled. “She said I’d never come 
back ” 

His voice died away into incoherent 
murmurs. 

Howard looked at the man, and his lip 
curled contemptuously. He said nothing, 
however, but turned in silence toward 
where the boat had sunk. 

3 


34 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


The next instant he started and 
glanced swiftly around him. His eyes 
fell on a life-preserver lodged in the 
broken doorway by the last wave that had 
retreated from his feet. He snatched it 
up and buckled it round him; then fas- 
tened one end of a rope beneath his arms 
and thrust the other into the hands of the 
stupefied officer. 

f < There ! Wake up, man ! ’ ’ he ordered. 
^‘Wake up and stand by!’’ 

Jackson stared at him. ‘‘Where! 
What! How!” he mumbled. 

“Wake up, man! Don’t you see it’s a 
woman!” 

As he saw the returning intelligence 
dawn in Jackson’s eyes, Howard slipped 
to the toppling brink of the bulwarks and 
stood watching for the next heave of the 
sea. As it came, with a white rag sopping 
foolishly on its crest, he waved his hand 
to the other. 

“Give my love to Susan!” he cried, and 
plunged downward. 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 35 


Chaos! The sea into which he dived 
was without form and void. Like a grain 
of corn in a popper, he was tossed hither 
and thither, twisted, wrenched at — all 
sense of direction stripped from him. 

There was not one chance in a thous- 
and that he would reach the woman; 
not one in a million that he could give her 
the least help if he did reach her; the 
very attempt became preposterous the 
moment he touched the water. Only 
blind chance could avail. 

The incredible happened. His arm, 
striking out, caught the girl fairly round 
the waist and fastened there. He did not 
try to get back to the ship; he made no 
reasoned eifort at all ; reason was impos- 
sible in that turmoil. 

He struggled, no doubt, but the strug- 
gle was unconscious — a mere automatic 
battle for life. But he clung to the wo- 
man, gasping, with oblivion pressing hard 
upon his reeling brain. 

Something seemed to grasp him around 


36 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


the waist and drag him backward, and 
unconsciously he tightened his arm on 
the waist he held, meeting the wrench 
as the sea withdrew its support. 

Crash! Something had struck him 
cruelly, but struck realization back into 
his brain. Before he could act, the sea 
swelled around him again; but when it 
withdrew once more, he knew what had 
happened. Jackson was dragging him 
back to the wreck, and he had struck 
against its side or on its submerged deck. 

It was the deck! By favor of Provi- 
dence it was the deck! Aided by the 
drag of the rope, the last wave washed 
Howard and his prize almost to the feet 
of the police officer, who braced himself 
to withstand the backtow as the water 
retreated; then reached down and drag- 
ged both up to momentary safety. 

Howard opened his eyes for one in- 
stant. 

‘‘Didn’t I tell you I would have a drier 
death on shore?” he gasped before un- 
consciousness claimed him. 


IV 


Consciousness came slowly back to 
Frank Howard. He raised Ms head, but 
otherwise lay still, painfully reconstruct- 
ing the world around him. So tightly 
was he wedged between a broken ven- 
tilator and a skylight coamings that it 
was only with considerable difficulty that 
he finally managed to lift himself to a 
sitting position and stare dizzily around. 

He was alone on the deck, which had 
become much steeper than he remembered 
it in the gray dawn. Evidently another 
bulkhead forward had given way, allow- 
ing another compartment to become filled 
with water and causing the bow of the 
steamer to sink deeper. 

In compensation the stern had risen 
somewhat higher, so that the waves broke 
against the deck, but no longer rushed 
violently up it. The sea, too, had gone 
37 


88 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


down, curbed perhaps by the thick mantle 
of yellow weed that floated all about. 

With much difficulty he scrambled to 
his feet, clinging desperately the while 
to the ventilator. 

‘^Steady! Steady!^’ he muttered. ‘^If 
I tobogganed down into that water I 
shouldn’t get up again in a hurry.” He 
held out his hand and noted its tremu- 
lousness. ^‘By Jove! I’m weak as a 
cat.” 

Rapidly his brain grew clearer. Ship 
and sea and sky ceased their momentary 
whirlings and settled into their proper 
places. He looked up at the zenith, to 
which the sun, though still veiled, had in- 
dubitably climbed. 

‘^Six hours at least,” he soliloquized. 
‘‘Heavens, I must have been pounded 
hard to lie unconscious for that long! If 
the old tub has floated six hours she may 
float indefinitely. But ” 

He stared curiously around him. As 
far as his eye could reach stretched the 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 39 


yellow gulf-weed, blanketing the blue of 
the sea. So thick was it that it held the 
Queen comparatively stationary, despite 
the strong breeze that pressed against 
her. 

Howard uttered a cry of dismay. 

‘^The Sargasso Sea,” he groaned. 
^^We’re inside it — far inside it. Great 
Scott!” His brain reeled again. Where 
the deuce is Jackson?” he muttered 
irritably. ‘‘And whereas that woman?” 

Pat to the moment, Jackson thrust his 
head out of the doorway of the social hall. 
His dark face was pallid now, and he 
glared around him wildly. When he saw 
Howard standing, his expression bright- 
ened. 

“So you’re alive,” he rumbled, surlily. 
“It takes a devil of a lot to kill some 
people.” 

Howard stared at the man curiously. 
It was hardly the way he had expected 
to be greeted. 

“Yes,” he answered, slowly, “it takes 


40 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


a good deal — sometimes. It didnT take 
much for those poor devils in that boat 
you wanted to go in. Where’s the girlT’ 

Jackson jerked his hand over his right 
shoulder. 

She’s in there,” he responded. Then 
he hesitated for an instant. ‘‘It was a 
brave thing you did,” he finished, grudg- 
ingly. 

Howard shrugged his shoulders. 

“Merely a choice of deaths,” he an- 
swered. “I expected the ship to sink 
any minute, and, personally, I preferred 
to die fighting. How is she?” 

“She’s breathing, but that’s all. She 
hasn’t moved since I got her aboard.” 

“No wonder. She really hasn’t any 
right to be alive after what she went 
through. Have you done anything for 
her!” 

“I didn’t know what to do. I took her 
into the social hall and laid her on the 
sofa and got some whiskey for her, but I 
couldn’t get her to take it, and she looked 


THE ISLE OP DEAD SHIPS 41 


so horrible and ’’ He paused, evi- 

dently shaken. 

Howard stretched up his hand. 

‘‘I must see her,’’ he declared. ^‘I’m 
pretty shaky still, but if you’ll give me a 
lift I’ll try to scramble up beside you and 
then we’ll see what we can do.” He took 
the hand that Jackson o:ffered. ‘‘Now 
brace yourself,” he warned. “All set?” 

Jackson nodded, and Howard, after an 
experimental tug or two, put forth all his 
strength and drew himself up to the 
other’s side. 

“That’s good,” he remarked. “I 
guess we’re both worth a dozen dead men 
yet. By the way, how did you get the 
girl up here?” 

Jackson showed more animation than 
he had yet done. 

“The deck wasn’t so steep when I 
moved her,” he explained. “It tilted 
worse just as I got her inside. I thought 
at first we were going down, but we 
didn’t.” 


n THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


Howard stepped inside the social hall 
— which had never before so belied its 
name — and looked aronnd him. After 
the bright light of the deck, the room 
seemed dark, and for a moment he could 
see nothing. Then he caught a glimpse 
of something lying on the big athwart- 
ship sofa, and scrambled over to it. 

A girl lay there in a crumpled heap. 
In her rich golden brown hair alone was 
any touch of color. Her eyes were closed 
and her lips blue. Her cheeks were so 
bloodless that it seemed impossible that 
she still lived. 

Once she might have been pretty — even 
beautiful — but the sea had robbed her of 
all charm, leaving only the pitifulness of 
youth and womanhood. Howard drew a 
long breath as he looked at her, and a 
sudden rage rose within him. She should 
not die! He had torn her from the sea. 
She should not die! 

Fragmentary ideas as to the proper 
thing to do came back to him. He bent 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 43 


down, chafing her wrists and temples; 
and then, raising her head, touched Jack- 
son’s bottle to her lips. A long, shudder- 
ing sigh shook the girl’s body, and 
Howard saw a pair of brown eyes open 
and stare up at him; then close wearily. 
Again he raised her head. Drink,” he 
commanded, as he poured the spirit be- 
tween her parted lips. 

As the strangling liquor went down, 
the eyes flashed open again, and the girl 
shook from head to foot with a coughing 
— so violent and so prolonged that 
Howard feared that he had overdone his 
task. 

But it soon passed, leaving her con- 
scious. 

For a moment she lay still, vaguely 
puzzling over her situation. Then recol- 
lection returned with a jerk, and she sat 
up. 

remember,” she gasped. ^^Oh, that 
dreadful wave! To see it come down, 
down, down Where am I?” 


44 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


'‘You’re back on the Queen. It’s all 
right. Try to keep cool. You’ll be better 
in a moment.” 

The wonder grew in the girl’s eyes. 
"The Queen!” she murmured. "The — 
Queen! How did I get back!” 

"The waves washed you back and we 
managed to pull you on board. You had 
better rest a while. You have been un- 
conscious a long time.” 

The girl looked from one to the other. 

"Thank you! Thank you both,” she 
murmured. "I can’t find words now, but 

— the others! Were any of them !” 

Her lips moved, but no sound followed. 

Howard bowed his head, but he an- 
swered unflinchingly — better the clean, 
sharp cut of certainty than dragging 
suspense. 

"You were the only one in your boat 
who was saved,” he answered quietly. 
"I know nothing of the other boats.” 

The girl covered her face with her 
hands. "Oh, poor people!” she moaned. 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 45 


^^Poor, poor people!’’ Then she dashed 
the tears from her eyes and dragged her- 
self to her feet, holding fast to the back 
of the sofa. 

‘‘I am Miss Dorothy Fairfax,” she 
said, with a pretty access of dignity. 
‘‘And you?” Her eye traveled from one 
man to the other. 

If Howard hesitated, it was for so 
short a time that it passed unobserved. 

“This is Detective Jackson, of the New 
York police,” he answered steadily, “and 
I am Frank Howard, his prisoner.” 

“Frank Howard! Not — ^not ” 

“Yes.” 

“My God!” For the first time in her 
life, Dorothy Fairfax fainted dead away. 


V 


As Dorothy fell Howard caught her in 
his arms and laid her upon the sofa. 
Then he faced Jackson. 

‘‘Nice thing, thisT’ he remarked, grim- 
ly. “A very nice thing, considering the 
state of alfairs. No!’’ he interjected, as 
he saw Jackson’s eyes wander to the girl. 
“Don’t worry about her just now. She’s 
exhausted, anyway, and she’ll sleep it 
off and be all the better when she rouses. 
Meanwhile, there’s work for us. We all 
need food, and it’s imperative that we 
should find some at once. Come.” 

The angle of the ship’s deck made ex- 
amination both difficult and dangerous; 
but when, by the exercise of care, it had 
been safely carried out, it was evident that 
the voyagers need not fear either star- 
vation or thirst for a long time to come. 
The store-rooms of the Queen were above. 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 47 


though only just above, the new water- 
line, and in them there was food for 
months to come. 

It was good food, too, intended for the 
consumption of passengers who paid 
well. In addition to canned goods, of 
which the stock was large and varied, 
there was a quantity of ice and fresh 
meat, fresh vegetables, flour, biscuits, 
sauces, breakfast foods, and so forth, to 
say nothing of wines, liquors, and 
tobacco. 

With water the ship was equally well 
supplied. Not only was the saloon scut- 
tle-butt full, but, after some search, 
Howard found two large tanks whose 
contents had not even been touched. In 
the pantry, just forward of the saloon, 
was a refrigerator with cooked food 
enough for two or three days. 

All these things were not found in an 
instant. As it chanced, the pantry came 
last ; and the moment the cooked food was 
discovered, further investigation was 


48 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


promptly suspended and preparations 
made to comfort the inner man. A plen- 
tiful supply was quickly transferred to 
the big saloon-table, where it was held 
in place by the fiddles, which had been 
put on the night before at dinner and 
had not been removed. 

Leaving Jackson to brew the coffee, an 
art in which he asserted that he was pro- 
ficient, Howard went to see after Miss 
Fairfax. 

As he had expected, he found her sleep- 
ing, her swoon having quietly passed into 
slumber. A little color had come back to 
her cheeks and to her lips, and her breath- 
ing was regular. 

For several moments he stood looking 
down at her, noting the sweep of her long 
lashes on her cheeks, the delicate pen- 
ciling of her eyebrows, and the pure curve 
of her parted lips. She was of his own 

class in life and He checked his 

thoughts shortly. 

From this girl and all connected with 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 49 


her he had been cut off by his trial and 
his sentence. Had it not been for the 
storm and the wreck, he would never have 
spoken to one of her kind again. 

Suddenly he realized that her eyes were 
open and that she was regarding him 
curiously. The next instant she blushed 
furiously and struggled to her feet. How- 
ard did not otfer to help her ; he did not 
dare to. 

^‘Oh!” she begged. ‘^Please forgive 
me.’’ 

Howard mumbled something indistinct. 
He was too much surprised to speak 
clearly. Miss Fairfax, however, did not 
accept his presumably polite disclaimer. 

‘‘No, hut really,” she reiterated, “I 
owe you an apology. It was very silly of 
me to faint. I was exhausted, and the 
discovery ” 

“The discovery that you were alone at 
sea with a detective and a convicted mur- 
derer appalled you — as well it might. Do 
not blame yourself, Miss Fairfax, and do 
4 


50 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


not think that I am sensitive. No man 
can go through an experience such as 
mine and fail to have his cuticle thick- 
ened. Give yourself no uneasiness about 
me.” 

Dorothy began to reply, when sudden- 
ly the dinner-gong rang out imperatively. 

What’s that?” she gasped. 

Howard smiled. ‘ ^ That ’s Jackson, ” he 
explained, ^‘and he’s hungry. Will you 
come to dinner?” 

But Dorothy did not come to dinner at 
once. When she did, ten minutes later, 
after a visit to her stateroom, which 
luckily was far aft and consequently 
above water, Howard noted with amused 
surprise that in those few minutes she 
had managed to bind up her tangled hair 
and change her dress for another. She 
glanced at the table as she approached 
and flushed at Jackson ’« glum looks. . 

^ ‘ Oh ! ” she cried. ‘ ‘ Why did you wMt ? 
I told you not to.” She slipped into her 
seat. ‘‘I’m so hungry!” she sighed. 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 51 


The hot coffee and the abundant meal 
lightened the spirits of the trio in spite 
of the predicament in which they found 
themselves. With a ship, albeit a crippled 
one, under their feet and with plenty of 
food and water at hand, it was not in 
human nature to despair, especially as 
the sea had gone down so much that it 
no longer threatened them. 

To both Jackson and Miss Fairfax the 
worst seemed to be over ; in a day or two 
some one would pick them up, they 
thought, and all would be well. Howard 
alone, wiser in the ways of the sea, 
doubted. He listened to the others’ hope- 
ful prognostications, but said little. 

must study the situation before I 
can say anything,” was as far as he 
would commit himself, even in answer to 
a direct question. 

When they had finished their meal, 
Dorothy rose. 

^ ^^I’ll clear away these dishes,” she an- 
nounced. ‘M’m sure you two have more 


52 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


important things to attend to. Later, 
when Mr. Howard has studied the situa- 
tion, as he wishes, we will hold a council 
of war.’^ 

Howard bowed and went on deck. His 
first glance assured him that his worst 
fears were true. The Queen was evident- 
ly far within the Sargasso Sea, and under 
the impulse of a strong breeze from the 
west was steadily driving eastward, into 
ever-thickening fields of weeds. 

Wreckage was floating here and there, 
mute evidence of disasters that had oc- 
curred, perhaps close at hand, perhaps 
thousands of miles away. The passages 
of open water that had trellised the sea 
an hour before had disappeared, and with 
them had gone whatever faint hope How- 
ard might have had of rescue. 

No skipper would venture into that 
tangle; no boat could move through it; 
almost it seemed that one could walk 
on it; yet Howard knew that any one 
trusting to that deceptive firmness would 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 53 


drown, and drown without even a chance 
to swim. The weeds would coil round 
him, soft, slimy, but strong, and drag him 
down. 

Like all who have sailed these waters, 
Howard had heard many tales of the 
great Sargasso Sea, and had whiled away 
many an hour listening to the sailors’ 
yarns of the haven of dead ships buried 
far within those tangled confines — a ha- 
ven in the middle of the ocean, a haven 
without a harbor, a haven where the 
ships, dropping to pieces at last by slow 
decay, must sink for two miles or more 
before they reached the fioor of the 
ocean. 

And into this haven the Queen was 
drifting, slowly but surely. Nothing but 
sinking could prevent her from moving 
onward till she reached the innermost 
haven. 

What would it be like? he wondered. 
Would the wrecks really be crowded to- 
gether so that one could pass from one to 


54 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


the other! That there had been plenty 
of them borne in to make a very conti- 
nent of ships he did not doubt, but had 
they floated long enough to accumulate to 
any great extent! 

The sailors declared that the sea was 
as large as Europe; that the weed was 
impenetrable over an area larger than 
France ; that there might well be an area 
of massed wreckage two or three hundred 
miles in diameter. But these were 
sailors’ tales. Would they prove true! 

‘‘Well!” 

Howard turned around. Dorothy and 
Jackson had come up behind him and 
were staring curiously over the weedy 
sea. “Well!” reiterated the latter. 

Howard hesitated. 

“I fear it is not well,” he answered at 
last. “Our chances of escape for the 
present seem practically nil.” 

Miss Fairfax paled, but Jackson 
flushed darkly. 

“What are you givin’ us!” he de- 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 55 


manded, roughly. ‘‘The ship ainT going 
to sink, is she!’^ 

“No. That is not the danger. Look 
around you. ’ ’ He waved his hand to the 
weed- strewn horizon. 

Jackson looked again. “Well! What 
of it!’’ he demanded. 

“This ! You see how thick the weed is 
— thicker even than it was an hour ago. 
I’ve sailed these seas long enough to 
know what that means. It means that we 
have been blown a long way inside the 
Sargasso Sea.” 

“No ships come here; sailing ships 
would lose nearly all their speed, and 
steamers would lose all of it, for their 
screws would soon be hopelessly fouled. 
No vessel will come to rescue us. If we 
are ever to leave the Queen, it must be 
by our own efforts.” 

“What can we do!” asked Dorothy, 
quietly. 

“That is it exactly. What can we do! 
Frankly, I don’t see that we can do any- 


56 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


thing at present. We have no boats, and 
nothing but a boat, and a sharp-edged one 
at that, could make any way through this 
morass. And every minute we are get- 
ting deeper in. The current below catches 
our sunken bow, and the wind above 
catches our uplifted stern, and both sweep 
us eastward — ^toward the center of the 
weed. If we took to a raft we would move 
much more slowly — ^but we would starve 
much more quickly — and our chances of 
being picked up would not be improved. ’ ’ 

‘^But what will become of us?” 

don’t know. It seems likely that 
we will be swept into the center of the 
sea, where there are supposed to be thou- 
sands of derelicts, the combings of the 
North Atlantic for four hundred years — 
I say ‘supposed’ because nobody has ever 
seen them, but there isn’t much doubt 
about it.” 

Jackson laughed scornfully. 

“What are you givin’ us?” he de- 
manded incredulously. 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 57 


Dorothy turned to him. 

‘‘It’s all true,” she corroborated, with 
a catch in her voice. “Only yesterday 
Mr. Sprigg told me about it. He was 
wishing for a chance to explore the place, 

poor fellow. And now ” She broke 

otf and turned to Howard. “Isn’t there 
any chance at all of our being picked 
up!” she asked. 

Howard shook his head. 

“None, I fear,” he answered, gently. 
“I am sorry. Miss Fairfax, more sorry 
than I can say; but I fear we shall be on 
this wreck or on another for weeks and 
months to come. So far as I can see now 
we can do nothing till we reach the cen- 
tral wreckage. There we may find a boat 
or the tools to build one — ours are far 
under water — or some other way to 
escape.” 

“It will be desperately hard to wait; 
to drift deeper and deeper into this tangle 
day after day, hoping that things will 
change when they come to the worst; but 


58 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


it’s all we can do. Meanwhile we can 
thank God that we have food, drink, and 
comfortable shelter, and we are on our 
way to see what no one has ever seen be- 
fore and returned to tell it. Let’s make 
the best of it.” 

‘‘The best of it!” Jackson’s face 
was flushed and his eyes distended. 
“The best of it!” he vociferated. “By 
Heaven, it’s well for you to yap ! You’re 
all right here. You’re safe from the 
electric chair here. You can a:fford to 
wait and wait. But how about us f How 
about mef How about my wife and 
children?” 

“It’s hard,” Howard assented. “It’s 

bitter hard, but ” 

“Bah! You’re lying to us! You’re a 
sailor and can get us out of this, if you 
will. You don’t want to get out. You 
hope that you’ll get a chance to escape, 
but, by Heaven, you shan’t! I’ll kill you 
flr st ! By God, I will ! ’ ’ 

“It’s your duty to do so!” Howard 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 59 


spoke quietly, but a spot of red glowed 
on each cheek. ^^It is your duty to kill 
me rather than let me escape. But it is 
not your duty to insult me. I permit no 
man to do that, and I warn you not to 
repeat your otfense. 

^‘For the rest. Miss Fairfax, there is 
some reason in what this man says. The 
catastrophe which has brought death to 
so many, and suffering, both past and 
future, to you, has saved me. I am safe 
from the electric chair. Anywhere else 
in the wide world I would have to shrink 
from every casual glance ; would have to 
lie in answer to every wanton question. 
But no extradition runs to the heart of 
the Sargasso Sea. So it might seem 
natural that I should wish to stay here. 
In so far, our excitable friend is right. 
But I give you my word of honor, not as 
a jailbird, but as the gentleman I once 
was, that I am even more anxious to get 
out of here than yourself. I have still a 
task to do in the world; my view is not 


60 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


entirely bounded by the electric chair. 
If any faintest chance offers for us to 
escape, be sure that I will seize it. But 
I am helpless until we reach the central 
wrecks and see what aid they have to 
offer. Then I will do what a man may. ’ ’ 

‘‘I do not promise to go on to New 
York with Jackson, but I do promise to 
get you and him safely out of this place, 
if it is within my power to do so — and 
I believe it will be. Say that you believe 
me.” 

It was impossible not to believe this 
clear-eyed, straight- spoken gentleman, 
convicted murderer though he were. 
Dorothy held out her hand. 

believe you,” she said, ^^and I trust 
you. ’ ’ 

Howard looked at the hand doubtfully. 

‘^That is not nominated in the bond,” 
he suggested. 

‘Then we’ll put it in,” returned the 
girl. “As for what you have done in the 
past — I have forgotten it. We will all 
forget it — ^till then.” 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 61 
be it — till then I’’ 

The hands of the two met. But Jack- 
son, standing aside, grunted scornfully. 

‘^I’ll not forget it,’’ he growled. . ^^Not 
for a single minute ; not till I get you to 
New York. I’ve known your smooth- 
spoken sort before.” 


VI 


Two weeks passed without change in 
the situation, except that their end saw 
the Queen still deeper in the tangle. The 
breeze from the west had continued, but 
day by day had grown fainter, until at 
last it barely cooled the faces of the 
weary passengers. Day by day, too, the 
weed and the wreckage in the tangle grew 
thicker. Here and there floated broken 
spars, fragments of shattered deck- 
houses, moss-grown planks, Jacob ’s-lad- 
ders, and all the fugitive spoil of the sea. 
Broken boats, bottom upward ; rafts with 
tumbled fragments of canvas screening 
perhaps some terrible burden ; a red 
buoy wrenched from some coast harbor; 
a bottle with a little flag bobbing above 
it — these appeared, grew nearer, and 
dropped astern, sometimes just out of 
reach of the Queen. 


62 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 63 

Several times abandoned ships ap- 
peared; one with a patch of sail gave 
Jackson some agonizing alternations of 
hope and despair before its final nearness 
forced him to admit that it, like their own 
vessel, was a derelict, bonnd for the port 
of dead ships. None of this wreckage, 
however, kept pace with the Queen. The 
tallest caught the wind and the deepest 
caught the current, but the Queen caught 
both, and moved ahead accordingly. 

The marvel of it all affected the voy- 
agers according to their several natures. 
Jackson took it hardest. Used to the roar 
of New York and to the electric conta- 
gion of great crowds, and without re- 
sources within himself, the comparative 
solitude and the uncertainty drove him 
frantic. Had he been alone, he would 
never have lived so long; despair would 
have robbed him of his wits altogether 
and have driven him to end it all by a 
plunge over the side. Even as it was, his 
state caused his companions grave alarm. 


64 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


Howard took care never to let him be 
very long out of his sight by day. For- 
tunately, he slept like a log at night, and 
Howard was able to lock him in his room 
late and release him early without his 
ever discovering that he had been con- 
fined. 

This state of affairs, however, could 
not continue. Day by day the detective 
grew more and more surly, until Howard 
began to long for the open conflict that 
was sure to come. Had they two been 
alone together, he would have speedily 
brought affairs to a crisis, but the misery 
of Dorothy’s position should anything 
happen to himself made him hold off, 
hoping that Jackson’s mood might pass. 
The worst of it all was the man had a 
revolver — the only one on board. 

For the rest, Howard seemed to be not 
at all troubled. In fact, so far as Jackson 
knew, the situation worried him not at all. 
Only Dorothy, who, light-footed, had once 
come upon him unheard and found him 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 65 

on his knees with bowed head and shak- 
ing shoulders, suspected that his light- 
heartedness was assumed. On that occa- 
sion she had stolen away as silently as 
she had come. 

As a matter of fact, Howard, though 
wild to get back to the task of which he 
had spoken to the others, was yet not 
anxious to go to execution. Moreover, 
the wonder of the situation appealed to 
him mightily, and he tried to be content 
to grasp the hours as they came, and not 
to worry over the future. After he had 
thoroughly explored the reachable por- 
tions of the vessel and had worked out 
their position as well as it was possible 
with such makeshift instruments as he 
could devise, he had devoted himself to 
the study of the myriad life that swarmed 
among the weeds. A scoop, trailed over- 
board for a few minutes, invariably 
brought aboard hundreds of living forms. 

Something of a naturalist already, he 
took delight in studying the sea creatures, 
5 


66 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


and in noting the marvellous protective 
resemblances by which they hid from foes 
or crept upon enemies, themselves simi- 
larly equipped. 

In this study he was enthusiastically 
joined by Dorothy. No past record of 
crime could prevent the intimacy that 
sprang up between these two, so like in 
tastes and training, thus thrown upon 
each other for human companionship. 
Again and again Dorothy told herself 
that she ought to shrink from Howard 
and confine their intercourse to the needs 
of bare civility, and, accordingly, for a 
time she would devote herself to Jackson 
and let Howard go. But Jackson, blame- 
less police-officer as he was, had no re- 
sources within himself to long content an 
educated girl like Dorothy, and soon she 
would drift back to Howard’s side — 
much, it must be owned, to Jackson’s 
relief. 

Curiously enough, the girl was not un- 
happy. The situation, as yet, was too 
novel for that. The fact that she could 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 67 


see no possible means for rescue did not 
greatly trouble her. With the natural re- 
silience of youth, she threw off her anx- 
iety; with the natural trust of woman in 
man, she was content to leave everything 
to Howard, and to put implicit faith in 
his promise, vague and unsubstantial 
though it was, to do what he could to 
save her. This was the more surprising 
as he had as yet had no chance to prove 
himself capable. Nevertheless, Dorothy 
threw all responsibility on his shoulders 
and concerned herself no more about the 
outcome. If sometimes uneasy questions 
assailed her, she drove them away. There 
was nothing to do but to trust him. After 
she had attended to the meals — a duty 
which she insisted upon taking on herself 
after the first day — she would join him 
at his nets, and together they would pass 
away the hours. They grew very friendly 
in those days, especially in the long 
silences of sympathetic understanding 
that ever bind heart to heart. 

One day, the fifteenth since the storm, 


68 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


after one of these silences, Dorothy 
turned to the man impulsively. ^‘Mr. 
Howard,’’ she exploded. ‘‘You say you 
are not thin-skinned. Won’t you tell me 
something about your case?” 

Howard flushed. “To what end. Miss 
Fairfax?” he asked quietly. “I can say 
that I am innocent, of course ; but that is 
what every convict in the land says. I 
could not convince the jury. Is it not 
better that I keep silence till I can get the 
proof?” 

“Nevertheless, tell me.” 

“Certainly; if you really wish it.” 
Howard’s tones were coolly impersonal. 
“On May 8 of last year, I received a 
letter in a woman’s writing. It was short 
and I remember every word of it. ‘Dear 
Frank,’ it said, ‘I am here. Come to see 
me at once. Dolores.’ Then followed the 
address. Perhaps I was foolish to go, but 
I did go — to a cheap lodging-house, where 
the landlady told me to ‘go right up’ to 
the third floor and knock on the door 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 69 


marked 8. The door was ajar, however, 
and as I got no answer to my knock, I 
pushed it open and looked in. A woman’s 
body was lying on the floor. Again I was 
foolish. I should have summoned aid at 
once. Instead, I went in, and stooped 
over the body. Immediately I saw that 
the woman was dead; strangled appar- 
ently. As I rose to call for help, the 
landlady appeared at the door. Probably 
the inference she drew was justified; at 
any rate, she tried to blackmail me, and 
when I refused to submit she shrieked 
and summoned assistance. She declared 
that she had seen me choking the woman, 
and I was arrested. Later it developed 
that some one passing under my name 
had married the girl — for she was noth- 
ing more — in a little village near San 
Juan at the very time my ship was sta- 
tioned there.” 

‘ ^ That, of course, furnished the motive 
for the crime. I had, so it was charged, 
married the girl and deserted her. Later, 


70 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


when she followed me to New York, I had 
sought her out and murdered her. There 
were plenty of people to swear to the 
marriage and to send in affidavits identi- 
fying my photograph as that of the 
bridegroom — though, as it seems, none of 
them had seen very much of him. Only 
the minister who performed the cere- 
mony was doubtful, and him my lawyers 
arranged to bring to New York. He 
started, but his ship was wrecked and he 
was drowned on the way. All I could 
say. was that I had never seen the girl 
until I looked on her dead body, and that 
went for little.” 

Evidently, the girl thought that she 
had married Frank Howard. Perhaps she 
did marry a Frank Howard ; the name is 
not uncommon. Perhaps she married 
some one deliberately masquerading un- 
der my name. I do not know. At all 
events, the case was complete against me, 
and the jury found me guilty without 
leaving their seats. I escaped and went 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 71 


to Porto Rico to look for evidence, but 
I was captured before I could find it. 
That is all, Miss Fairfax. I cannot blame 
you if you agree with the jury.’^ 

‘‘But I don’t — — ” 

The sentence was never finished. 
Jackson, who for two hours had been 
standing by the rail, staring northward, 
suddenly whirled around and came 
toward the two, pistol in hand. 

“Put your fists up,” he ordered How- 
ard tensely. “ Up ! Quick ! Hang you ! ’ ’ 

Taken by surprise, Howard could do 
nothing but obey. 

Jackson laughed madly. “You’ve run 
things just about long enough, ’ ’ he grated. 
“WeVe been driftin’ in this wreck for 
two weeks now and I’m dog tired of it. 
I ain’t no sailor, but I know when a man’s 
givin’ me the double cross, and you’re 
doin’ it. You’ve got to get us out of 
this.” 

Howard’s face grew dark. “Kindly 
specify!” he said. I 


72 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 

The other glared at him. ‘‘DonT you 
try to bluff me with your big words, ’ ^ he 
shouted. won^t have it. YouVe been 
lettin^ on that you wanted to get us out 
of this and all the time you’ve been lettin’ 
us drift deeper in. You don’t want us to 
get away at all, for all your smooth talk.” 

‘‘I told you that I was helpless until 
we reached the central mass of wrecks 
and ” 

^‘Yah! You and your mass of wrecks! 
I ain’t no come-on. You can’t work no 
con game on me. I never took no stock 
in those fairy tales, but I thought I’d let 
you play your game out. Now I’m tired 
of it, and it’s up to you to do something 
quick ! ’ ’ 

Howard shrugged his shoulders. 
“With pleasure,” he agreed, “if you’ll 
kindly tell me what to do.” 

“How do I know? I ain’t no sailor. 
You are! And you’re going straight 
back to your state-room and stay there till 
you study out some plan to get us out 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 73 

of this. You belong in quod, anyway, 
and you’re going to stay there — ^with the 
bracelets on, too, until you get us out of 
this. March, now. ’ ’ 

But Howard shook his head. ^H’ll 
never wear irons again,” he declared. 

Never! You’re armed and I’m not. 
You can kill me, but you can’t jail me. 
Make up your mind to that. As for the 
central mass of wrecks, it must exist; it’s 
impossible that it should not exist. The 
only question is as to the area it covers. 
If you can By Jove!” 

His eyes left the detective’s face and 
travelled into space. ‘‘Fool,” he cried, 
“look yonder.” 

Jackson laughed scornfully. “Not good 
enough, ’ ’ he cried. ‘ ‘ You can ’t fool ’ ’ 

But Dorothy broke in. ‘ ‘ Land ! Land ! ’ ’ 
she cried. 

In spite of himself the detective looked 
around. Through the haze before them 
loomed what seemed to be the bulk of an 
island, set with lofty tiers and dark 


74 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


beaches on which white houses gleamed 
in the setting sun. So real it seemed that 
the happy tears streamed from Dorothy ^s 
eyes. ‘‘Oh!” she sobbed, “it’s land! 
land ! land ! ’ ’ 

Howard’s voice came to her from afar 
ofp. “No,” he murmured, sadly. “It is 
not land. It is wreckage. We have 
reached our destination.” 

Moved by a slight breeze, the haze 
shredded away and there, on the waters 
before them, stretching away to right and 
to left, lay an interminable mass of 
wrecks of every shape and description, 
banked together so thickly that they 
seemed to touch — and did touch — each 
other. Dead! all of them. Some newly 
dead ; others long dead ; but all unburied, 
waiting in the haven of dead ships for the 
long-deferred end. The trees were not 
trees, but masts hung with ravelled cord- 
age; the beaches were the black hulls of 
ships; and the white houses were deck- 
houses or patches of canvas. 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 75 


For a moment no one spoke. Dorothy 
stood staring, every muscle tense, while 
the tears dripped slowly from her distend- 
ed eyes. Jackson’s mouth fell open; his 
pistol hand fell nerveless to his side. For 
the first time he realized the situation. 

As they gazed, the sun with tropic sud- 
denness dropped below the horizon and 
hid the scene. 

Howard’s voice broke the silence. 
‘^Now,” he encouraged, can get to 
work.” 


VII 


It was late that night before the voy- 
agers dropped into uneasy slumber. The 
wonder of their situation, suddenly 
brought home to them, had roused them 
all to unusual volubility. In the excite- 
ment consequent on the discovery of the 
massed wrecks even Jackson forgot his 
suspicions, and the three talked together 
freely. Howard had promised that they 
should join the wrecks, and they had done 
so. Now he would have a chance to keep 
his other promise to get them out ; in the 
first flush of arrival they did not doubt 
that he would do so. 

But Jackson, at least, changed his 
opinion the next morning when he came 
on deck and viewed the scene before him. 

During the night the Queen, drawn by 
the same natural attraction that holds the 
planets in their sphere and brings float- 
76 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 77 


ing chips together in a basin, had taken 
its place with the dead ships. Under her 
counter lay a water-logged schooner ; be- 
side her rubbed a dismasted sailing ship ; 
over her submerged bow hung a tramp 
steamer, whose blackened masts, bare of 
cordage, gave evidence of the flames that 
had ravaged her. Beyond, stretched a 
mass of wreckage, ship pressing upon 
ship, in an endless iteration of ruin. Only 
to the west the view was open, and there 
stretched the weed in slimy convolutions. 

Over all screamed the sea-birds. 

Each of these countless wrecks had 
once sailed the sea, new and strong, and 
each had come here at last to slumber 
peacefully until the deep should open and 
receive it. No more would they ride out 
the hurricane or take with frolic welcome 
the butfetings of the waves; no more 
would they visit the great ports of men 
and groan beneath the heavy cargoes 
placed upon them. Their days of turmoil 
were over. Here, in this quiet haven, in 


78 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


the great calm of the tropics, with only 
the faintest breezes to whisper into their 
ears tales of the open sea, and with the 
birds to nest in their deserted rigging, 
they dreamed their old age away. 

To Dorothy the sight was solemn, but 
not sad; to Howard it was amazing; to 
Jackson it was maddening. 

Less than ever did he believe that he 
was hopelessly trapped far out on the 
ocean; more than ever was he convinced 
that Howard was deceiving him for his 
own ends. He saw the ships rocking 
gently on the swells, noted white patches 
of sails showing here and there, heard the 
cries of the gulls, and told himself afresh 
that he could easily walk ashore if he only 
Imew how; and when a flock of parrots 
lighted in the rigging and demanded 
crackers, and a monkey poised on the 
end of a near-by mast and gibbered, he 
was convinced beyond peradventure that 
Howard had lied to them and was only 
watching his chance to desert them. He 


a'HE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 79 


did not even listen to that officer when he 
explained that both birds and beasts must 
have drifted in on wrecks and had prob- 
ably thriven. 

‘ ‘ The birds will feed on the roaches on 
the old rattle-trap wrecks,” he explained, 
‘^and the monkeys will live on the birds’ 
eggs. Perhaps, too, both catch shell-fish 
in the weeds. ’ ’ 

Breakfast was a silent meal. Dorothy 
was awed and frightened by the sight of 
the wrecks, and Jackson was glum. In 
vain Howard strove to rouse them. 
Finally he gave up and finished his break- 
fast in silence. Then he pushed away his 
plate. 

Listen to me, please,” he said coldly. 
‘‘We have arrived at our destination and 
must now take steps to help ourselves. 
Two things are necessary: first, to ex- 
plore the ships around us; second, not to 
get lost. Make no mistake ; the danger of 
this last is very great. These ships will 
not look the same as we leave them and 


80 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


as we return to them; where we climb 
down a ship’s side in going away, we must 
climb up it in coming back, and vice 
versa. Often this may be difficult ; some- 
times it may be impossible. Yet, if we 
try to vary our route, we may lose our- 
selves; and once lost the chances are a 
thousand to one against our ever finding 
our way back to the Queen again. Not 
that we shall stay by the Queen long; 
probably we shall soon find some ship 
better suited for a base of operations. 
But we must remember that this conti- 
nent of ships is a desert except around 
its edges. New wrecks arriving will 
bring food and water, but a few hundred 
yards inside the borders neither can re- 
main. It may seem to you that it would 
be easy to get back to the border again, 
but I assure you that it would not be. 
Without a compass, we would not know 
which way to go, and might easily be 
plunging deeper and deeper into the 


mass. 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 81 


He paused, waiting for comment, but 
none was made. He was leader, however 
grudgingly so, and it was for him to map 
out their course of action. No one 
dreamed of disputing it — Jackson, no less 
than Dorothy, realized his helplessness 
and his ignorance. 

beg you, therefore, to be very care- 
ful,’’ resumed Howard, seeing that the 
others waited. am particularly insis- 
tent, because we must explore first of all. 
To-day the danger is not great, be- 
cause we are not likely to get far away, 
but we might as well start right. First, 
we must run up all the signal-flags we can 
find; they will be conspicuous for a long 
ways otf. Next, we must light a fire in 
the galley range; its smoke will be visible 
still farther away. Third, we must never 
go out of sight of our base — the Queen, 
at present — under any circumstances ; 
when we climb to each new ship we must 
look back and make sure that we can still 
see the flags or the smoke. Fourth, we 
6 


82 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


must each carry a hatchet and mark our 
way just as a woodman blazes a path 
through a forest ; the hatchet will come in 
handy, anyhow. Later, if we do not find 
what we want, we can shift our base to 
some other vessel along the ‘coast,’ and 
explore farther with that as a new center. 
Do I make myself clear?” 

Dorothy nodded. “Shall we all go to- 
gether ? ’ ’ she asked. 

Howard shook his head. “No, I think 
not,” he answered gently. “I hope you 
will be willing to stay here for the pres- 
ent and keep the galley fire alight; I’ll 
show you how to make it smoke. Jack- 
son and I will do the exploring for to-day, 
anyway. He can go to the north along 
the coast, and I will go to the south, 
and ” 

“Not much!” The policeman was 
shaking his head doggedly. “Not much, 
you don’t. I don’t leave you out of my 
sight. I’ve got my prders from head- 
quarters and- ” 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 83 


Howard stifled an exclamation. ‘‘Very 
well/’ he said coldly. “As yon please! 
Perhaps it is better anyway. Two can 
do things that one could not. Come! 
Let’s get ready.” 

“But ” Dorothy looked very du- 

bious. 

Howard turned to her. “I know what 
you would say, Miss Fairfax. You would 
like to go, of course. But, believe me, it 
is best not. Moving about these wrecks 
will be dijfficult and even dangerous for 
any one hampered by skirts. You would 
be exhausted very soon. Besides, we may 
meet unpleasant sights. Later, when we 
know our ground better, we will take you 
for a sight-seeing tour. You will be per- 
fectly safe on the Queen. You are not 
afraid to be left alone, are you?” 

“Oh! No! It will be lonely, of course, 
but isn’t there some way that I can signal 
to you if anything should happen?” 

Howard considered a while ; then 
plunged down into the vitals of the Queen^ 


84< THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


returning shortly with a double armful of 
straw dug from a hogshead once filled 
with crockery. 

‘‘There,’’ he said, dropping it at the 
entrance of the galley. ‘ ‘ If anything hap- 
pens, wet some of that and put it on the 
fire ; it will make a thick black smoke. By 
alternately closing and opening the draft, 
you can let it go up and cut it oif alto- 
gether. We’ll watch for it.” 

Howard and Jackson climbed down the 
Jacob ’s-ladder that still swung at the 
Queen’s counter, and dropped lightly to 
the deck of the water-logged schooner 
that lay there. Of this, nothing but a 
few inches of the deck and the stumps 
of the masts were above water ; whatever 
deck-houses there might have been had 
been carried away, together with the en- 
tire rail. Consequently there was noth- 
ing to investigate, nothing that could help 
the castaways in their efforts to escape, 
and the two men crossed over her with 
merely a glance, using her as a bridge to 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 85 


reach a ship floating high in the water 
just beyond. 

The second vessel had a gangway 
lowered down her side, evidently to help 
her passengers to reach the boats. Her 
masts were gone, but otherwise she 
seemed intact. 

‘‘Crew and passengers taken off by 
another ship,’’ explained Howard, “prob- 
ably in fair weather after a storm. Most 
likely another storm was brewing and the 
crew expected their own vessel to sink.” 

A rapid search showed that the ship 
had nothing of value to offer. Her boats 
were gone ; her compasses, charts, chrono- 
meters, and sextants all were gone. Some 
tools remained, but were so rusted as to 
be of little value. Howard soon led the 
way to her taffrail, whence he could 
clutch the shrouds of a full-rigged ship 
which had evidently been in a collision. 

As he stepped on the deck of this craft, 
there was a scurry of feet, and a dozen 
huge rats bolted across the deck and dis- 
appeared under the poop. 


86 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


‘^Confound tlie brutes/’ he muttered. 
‘‘I hate them I Wonder what they have 
been eating.” 

The answer was not far to seek. Close 
beside the davits of the quarter-boat lay 
two skeletons; one with a smooth, round 
hole drilled through the fleshless skull, 
the other with a broken backbone. How- 
ard looked at them and nodded. 

“Probably the crew made a rush for 
the boats,” he suggested. “Somebody — 
one of the officers, I suppose — tried to 
stop them. He shot one, but the others 
ran over him and broke his back. Then 
came the rats. Well, it was a man’s 
death. If you can find a couple of bags, 
Jackson, we will commit the bones to 
the sea.” 

From the ship the two men descended 
to a steamer, much down by the stem, 
with a gaping hole in her port counter, 
where something must have driven deep 
into her vitals. From this they climbed 
upon a small yacht, floating just awash. 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 87 


(“Held up by water-tight compart- 
ments,’^ explained Howard.) Thence they 
passed to another vessel, and to another, 
and another, each bearing mute record 
to the manner of its ruin. 

But on none did the explorers find what 
they sought. The boats were invariaj)ly 
gone; the tools were always rusty; the 
compasses had all been snatched from 
the binnacle and from the cabin; the 
charts had mostly been torn from the 
racks and tables, often so roughly that 
the thumb-tacks that had held their cor- 
ners were left in the board, each holding 
a triangular scrap of torn paper. In the 
few instances where any did remain, they 
were rotten with mildew, and charted re- 
gions far distant from the Sargasso Sea. 

It was noon when Howard gave the 
word to return to the Queen. “Don’t be 
downcast, Jackson,” he consoled. “What 
we have found to-day is only what we 
had to expect. The boats would, of 
course, be taken, even if everything else 


88 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


was left. The compasses, and charts, and 
sextants, and so on, would naturally be 
taken next, for those who went in the 
boats would need them to shape their 
course. The tools and engines would 
have almost invariably been left exposed 
to the weather and would be badly rusted. 
It would have been by mere chance had 
we found what we wanted on the very 
first day. At least we have learned that 
there is plenty of food and water and 
clothing and coal to be had for the tak- 
ing. Tomorrow we will search in 
another direction. Now, let’s go home.” 

But return was not so easy as the two 
men expected. As Howard had foretold, 
there was an important difference be- 
tween climbing up and climbing down, and 
this difference was accentuated by the 
fact that in leaving the Queen they had 
chosen the easiest route. When they 
could have gone from one ship to any 
one of two or three others, they had 
naturally moved to the one that ap- 
peared the least difficult of access. 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 89 

Taking the route in reverse, this small 
detail of choice often meant that they 
must return to the one that was the 
most difficult to board. 

To this expected obstacle was added 
another that was unexpected. In more 
than one instance they found that their 
morning route, as shown by their blazed 
marks, was absolutely impracticable. 
The ships had moved, slightly perhaps, 
but yet enough to bar their passage, ten 
feet of water being often as impassable 
as ten hundred. Howard struck his brow 
with his hand when he realized this. 

‘‘I was a fool not to foresee this!’’ he 
exclaimed. ‘^Of course, these ships are 
not absolutely stationary. Even far in- 
side they must be somewhat subject to 
currents and to winds, and must move 
slightly, while here, on the outskirts, they 
must move considerably. As a matter of 
fact, the whole mass must be swinging 
around and around in a vast circle, moved 
by the same current that brought them 


90 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


here in the first place. Well, we must 
simply abandon our blazes, and go home 
by the flags and the smoke.’’ 

Jackson peered into the distance. ^‘I 
can’t see no flags,” he objected. 

‘‘Can’t you? I can, but they are un- 
doubtedly hard to make out in this mass 
of frayed cordage and flapping streamers. 
However, we can see the smoke clearly 
enough, and must set our course by it.” 

Ten minutes later the first accident of 
the day occurred. In stepping from one 
ship to another, Jackson missed his foot- 
ing, caught wildly at a ratline, which 
broke in his grasp, and shot downward 
with a yell into the water. 

By the time he had risen to the sur- 
face, Howard, who had been a little in 
advance, was back, peering down at him. 

“Can you climb out?” he demanded. 
“No! I guess you can’t without help. 
Hook your fingers into that port-hole — 
there, just behind you. That’s right! 
Can you hang on for a while? It may 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 91 


take some time to find a rope sound 
enough to bear your weight. ’ ’ 

Jackson clawed the weed from oif his 
face. ‘^Yes! I can hang on all right/’ 
he returned, savagely. Evidently his in- 
voluntary bath had ruffled his temper. 
‘‘I can swim, too,” he added. 

Howard disappeared, and the police- 
man settled himself to wait. He had 
learned to swim in the North Eiver, and 
had no difflculty in keeping afloat, even 
without the adventitious aid of the bull’s- 
eye in the steamer’s side just above him. 
If he had fallen in almost anywhere else 
he could have gotten out himself, hut, as 
it chanced, this particular bit of water 
was shut in by the sides of three ships, 
none of which offered a foothold by which 
to climb. The bull’s-eye by which he 
hung was the only orifice that broke the 
smoothness of the overhanging sides. 

Time passed, however, and Howard did 
not return, and a vague uneasiness be- 
gan to work in the policeman’s mind. 


92 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


There were ropes everywhere. Surely, it 
did not take so long to find one. He 
called, but received no answer. Could 
Howard have lost the place! Or could 
some accident have befallen him! Or, 
could — ^good God ! Did the man mean to 
leave him to drown! 

The suggestion, once offered, would not 
down. It was, he told himself, the very 
thing to be expected. With him out of 
the way, Howard would be freed from 
the shadow of the gallows. He alone — 
except Miss Fairfax, and what was a 
girl’s life — ^he alone knew that Howard 
had survived the wreck of the Queen. 
With him dead, Howard — supposing that 
he could regain dry land — could live out 
his life in safety. And what was a police- 
man’s life to one whose hands were al- 
ready stained with the blood of his own 
wife! 

Jackson drew a long breath as convic- 
tion forced itself upon him. It was char- 
acteristic of the man that he did not 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 93 


whimper. He had been dealing with 
criminals for twenty years, and conceded 
them the right to fight for their own hand. 
He had always declared that he would 
take his dose when it came without doing 
the baby act; and, by George, he would 
keep his word. 

Hope had vanished when Howard re- 
appeared. In his hand was a boat’s 
tackle, which he proceeded to hitch to a 
davit that projected over Jackson’s head. 
But, instead of dropping down the other 
end, he quietly seated himself on the bul- 
warks and stared thoughtfully at the man 
below. 

‘‘Well, Jackson,” he remarked, de- 
liberately, “our positions seem to be re- 
versed.” 

The policeman scowled. “Damn you, 
yes,” he responded, truculently. 

An expression of admiration floated 
over Howard’s face. “By Jove, Jack- 
son!” he cried. “You’re all right. I 
didn’t think you had the nerve to speak 


94 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


up like that under the circumstances. 
‘What dam of lances brought you forth 
to jest at the dawn with deaths That’s 
from Kipling, Jackson, if you do not 
recognize it.” 

“GVan. If you’re goin’ to murder 
me, do it. You’ve had experience, all 
right.” 

“Fie! fie! Jackson! Call things by 
their proper names. This wouldn’t be 
any murder. But, there” — Howard’s 
voice grew stern — ‘ ‘ enough of this. I see 
you realize the situation. All I have to 
do is to leave you where you are, and 
to-morrow I will be a free man. But I 
am not going to do it ; I am going to pull 
you up in a minute. But I want you to 
realize that I have deliberately put aside 
the best chance possible to free myself 
from your surveillance, and I want you 
to cease dogging my footsteps and watch- 
ing me everywhere I go. I don’t ask you 
to let me escape or anything like that, but 
I do ask you to act on my suggestions 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 95 

without any talk of not letting me out of 
your sight. Our escape from this wreck- 
age may any day depend on your prompt 
obedience, and I want you to obey. In re- 
turn, I reiterate my assertion — ^which you 
did not believe — that I am even more 
anxious than you are to get hack to dry 
land; and in addition I promise you, on 
the word of an officer and a gentleman, 
that if I do get back, you and Miss Fair- 
fax shall go, too. I will not desert you, 
even though I know you will arrest me the 
moment you have force enough at hand 
to do it. Now, put your foot in the hook 
on this block, and I’ll haul you up.” 

Jackson caught the block that Howard 
dropped, and put his foot in it mechan- 
ically. He was a slow thinker, and How- 
ard’s words bewildered him for the 
moment ; later he would realize their im- 
port. Anyhow, now was the time to act ; 
the time to think would come later. So 
he grasped the rope and waited while his 
former prisoner hoisted him up to the 
deck. 


96 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 

Once there he turned to Howard and 
opened his mouth. But that individual 
checked him with a smile. 

‘‘After a while! After a while!” he 
counselled. “Let’s get back to the Queen 
now. Where’s that smoke!” 

He turned and gazed around the hori- 
zon ; then he started. 

“Something’s wrong on the Queen,” 
he cried. “Miss Fairfax is signalling for 


VIII 


When the two men left Dorothy alone 
in the Queen, she was not uneasy, al- 
though she did not welcome being alone 
in that desolate place. She had so ferown 
to depend on Howard’s companionship, 
and to take comfort even in Jackson’s 
bear-like presence about the ship, that she 
felt a queer sinking at heart when they 
left her. Still, she realized that it was 
necessary that some one who understood 
thoroughly what was wanted should ex- 
plore, and she knew that Howard was the 
only one possessed of that information. 
If Jackson felt it his duty to go along, 
she would not for worlds ask him to stay 
with her, although she was entirely con- 
vinced that Howard would not desert 
them. She had accepted without reserva- 
tion Howard’s story of the crime for 
7 97 


98 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


which he had been tried, and she put im- 
plicit trust in him. 

The fire in the galley was burning well 
when the two men left, and Dorothy de- 
cided to postpone her dishwashing and 
tidying up, and to remain on deck and 
watch their progress. Several times be- 
fore the tangled masts and hulls, torn 
canvas, and frayed cordage hid them from 
her view, Howard turned to wave his 
hand to her and shake his head in token 
that the search had as yet brought them 
nothing. When they disappeared at last 
behind a big, high-floating steamer, she 
went below to attend to her duties, which 
included the preparation of what she told 
herself should be an extra fine dinner, in 
celebration of the completion of the first 
stage of their journey. 

Time passed rapidly in accompaniment 
to the cheerful clink of the pans and the 
rattle of the dishes with which she set 
the table. At last she paused and looked 
at her watch. 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 99 


‘^Twelve o^clock,’’ she murmured. ^^He 
ought to be coming back now.’’ It was 
noticeable that she said ‘^he,” not 
‘^they.” ‘‘I’ll go on deck and look.” 

She started up the companionway, 
then paused, as a faint shout was borne 
to her ears. “There they are now,” she 
thought, happily. “I wonder what they 
have found.” She hurried up the stair- 
way. 

The call was repeated as she went, 
and was unmistakable now. “Ahoy, the 
ship!” it came again and again. 

Dorothy stopped short. “That’s not 
Mr. Howard’s voice — nor Mr. Jack- 
son’s,” she gasped. “Who ” 

Cautiously she peered from the door 
and looked around anxiously. Two un- 
known sailors were standing on the 
deck of the fire-blackened steamer that 
lay across the bows of the Queen. As 
she stared, one of them hailed again. 
“Ahoy, the steamer!” he shouted. 

Dorothy’s first feeling was one of de- 


100 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 

light. There were people then in this 
place of desolation, and people, to Dor- 
othy, meant civilization and all that it 
connotes — including facilities of com- 
munication with the world. She was 
about to answer the hail when something 
made her hesitate. It might be all right, 
hut she was alone. She turned, and, 
slipping back to the galley fire, rapidly 
thrust into it an armful of wet straw. 
An exclamation outside, faintly heard,, 
showed that the smoke had changed ac- 
cordingly. Twice she repeated the signal 
with an interval between; then warned 
by the thump of feet on the deck over- 
head, she thrust in a last armful and 
hurried toward the companionway. 

As she reached its top, the sailors ap- 
peared at the door. Dorothy bowed. 

* ^ Good morning, gentlemen ! ’ ’ she cried. 

The men started back with one accord ; 
their hands flew to their caps and pulled 
them from their heads. One seemed too 
amazed for speech, but the other was 
somewhat bolder. 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 101 


“Beggin’ your pardon, ma’am,^^ lie 
stammered. ‘‘I — ^we — Bill an' me hailed, 
but — hopes you're well, ma'am." 

Dorothy smiled. ‘‘Yes! I'm well," 
she returned, “and very glad to see you. 
Tell me, do you live here?" 

“On this ship, ma'am? No, ma'am." 
“Oh, no, I know you don't live on this 
ship, for we have just drifted in on it. 
I mean here." 

She waved her hand comprehensively. 
Bill had recovered somewhat by now. 
“No, ma'am," he declared positively. 
“Joe and me live in little old New York, 
But we've been here ten years!" 

“Ten years!" Dorothy’s cheeks paled. 
“Ten years! Oh! can't yon get away? 
Don't tell me you can’t get away!” 

“No, ma'am, we can’t get away. We'd 
go like a shot if we could. You see, 
ma'am, nothing but wrecks ever come in 
here, and there ain't no way of getting 
out." 

“Can't yon build a boat?" 


10^ THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


‘‘We might, ma^am, but how could we 
get it through the weed. Nobody ever 
has. Everybody who ever come in here 
is here yet.” 

“Everybody! How many are there of 
you!” 

“Twenty- two — ^not countin’ the women 
and the child.” 

“Women! Are there women here! 
I’m so glad! Oh! poor creatures! Have 
they — But, there ! Come up here and 
sit down. We drifted in here only yes- 
terday — three of us. The men have gone 
to explore, but they will be back soon. 
While we are waiting for them, you must 
tell me all about everything.” 

Dorothy led the way aft, reaching the 
taifrail just in time to see Howard and 
Jackson speeding toward her over the 
wrecks. She waved her hand at them; 
assured of their safety she felt more 
secure. 

“There comes the rest of our party,” 
she explained. 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 103 

The story told by Bill and Joe over the 
dinner-table was long and involved with 
many interruptions and many repetitions. 
According to them, there had always 
been people living on the assembled 
wreckage. The one of their number who 
had been there longest — for twenty-five 
years — knew personally others before 
him who had been there for as long again, 
and declared that these in turn knew of 
still others who had been there before 
them. It seemed very probable that the 
colony — if such a name could be applied 
to it — had existed for centuries. 

The people, like the ships, had always 
come and never gone ; once on the wrecks, 
they had stayed there till they died. 
Several of those now there had been born 
on the wrecks, and had lived there all 
their lives. Fresh wrecks brought them 
food, water, clothing, and many luxuries, 
and if these failed, there were abundant 
rain, birds’ eggs, and fish to fall back 
upon. Mostly sailors, trained to handi- 


104 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


ness, the castaways had developed many 
lines of industry, and, on the whole, 
lived very contentedly. 

‘‘Some of us is willing to live here al- 
ways,” said Joe, “an’ some ain’t — espe- 
cially at first. But, Lord love ye, they 
comes round to it after a while, seein’ 
they’ve got to.” 

The castaways, it seemed, had devel- 
oped a sort of government, under a 
former ship captain named Peter Forbes, 
whose ascendency rested partly on the 
fact that his strength enabled him to 
overcome everyone who contested the 
leadership with him, and partly on his 
native ability. Under his rule, stores 
were collected from the newly arrived 
ships and carried, sometimes from miles 
away, to what may be called the village — 
the central point where the castaways 
lived. A patrol — Joe and Bill, at present 
— ^was maintained, which made regular 
trips for fifty miles in each direction, 
investigating such new wrecks as might 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 105 


come in. The patrol only went as far as 
fifty miles in order to pick np any new 
arrivals, it being impracticable to trans- 
port stores more than a few miles over 
the ragged surface of the wreckage, even 
by swinging them on an aerial trolley 
from mast to mast. 

Forbes divided np the work, and saw 
that each individual did his share. He 
also acted as a fount of justice, settling 
disputes in a rough-and-ready fashion, 
and, on occasion, dealing out punish- 
ments, more or less severe, for infrac- 
tions of the rules he had laid down. Al- 
together, he seemed such an exceptional 
sort of man that Howard could not un- 
derstand why he had made no effort to 
escape to shore. 

Bill tried to make things clear. “You 
see, sir,’’ he explained, “it’s like this: 
This here weed stretches out for two hun- 
dred miles and more. We’d first have 
to build a boat, and then cut our way 
through it inch by inch. We couldn’t get 


106 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


grub or water enough in the boat to last 
us till we got out. An’ if we did get out, 
where ’d we be? At sea without a compass 
or nothin’ ! We all wanted to try at first, 
but Forbes, he explains things to us so 
plain that we sees how impossible it is. 
Two or three times coves have tried to 
get out, but they alius got stuck in the 
weed, an’ mighty glad they was to get 
back to where there was plenty to eat 
and drink.” 

Howard nodded. ‘ ^ I see the difficulty, ’ ’ 
he conceded. ‘‘But have you no instru- 
ments ? Of course there are not likely to 
be many, but I should think you would 
have found a few in all these years.” 

Joe hesitated. “The cap’n allers looks 
out for them things, ” he declared at last. 
“ISTobody knows how to use ’em but 
him.” 

“Ah! I see.” 

To himself Howard added that it was 
tolerably evident that Forbes was not 
over-anxious to escape ; probably he 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS lOT 


agreed with Caesar that he would rather 
be first in a little Iberian village than 
second in Rome” ; and, contented with his 
little realm and sway, threw his influence 
against any attempt of the others to de- 
plete it. Howard felt that he and Forbes 
might come to a clash later on. 

Dorothy changed the subject by asking 
about the women. There were two, it ap- 
peared, one old and one young. The older 
one, of whom the sailors spoke affection- 
ately as Mother Joyce, was nearly sixty 
years old ; she and her husband had been 
on the wrecks for fifteen years. The 
younger had been there only two years; 
she had been a widow, but had married 
one Gallegher, Forbes’s right-hand man, 
some time before. The only child in the 
community was hers. 

So you marry here, just as you do 
elsewhere?” interjected Dorothy, lightly, 
at this point. ‘‘Who performs the cere- 
monies?” 

Joe hesitated. “Cap’n Forbes used to 


108 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


up to last year’’ lie answered at last. 
‘‘ Then Mr. Willoughby floated in on a 
wreck. He’s a regular gospel sharp, an’ 
he’s done it since.” 

‘‘Gallegher ain’t pretty,” continued 
Joe, thoughtfully. ‘‘An’ I guess Mrs. 
Strother that was wasn’t overanxious to 
marry him. But women is awful skearce 
here, and they generally gits married 
right off.” He paused and looked from 
Dorothy to Howard. “Your wife, sir?” 
he questioned. 

Dorothy flushed hotly, but Howard did 
not seem to notice it. 

“ No, ” he said. ‘ ‘ This is Miss Fairfax. 
I am Lieutenant Howard, of the navy. 
This is Mr. Jackson, of the New York 
police force.” 

The men ducked their heads awkward- 
ly. “We did have another lady here,” 
remarked Bill, abstractedly. “She was 
the cap’n’s wife, but she died a month or 
two ago. The cap’n is mighty anxious to 
marry again — ^mighty anxious.” 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 109 

^‘Ali! indeed.’’ Howard rose from the 
table. ^‘Come,” he continued, let’s go 
on deck. I want yon to point out some- 
thing to me!” 

As Dorothy led the way, followed by 
Bill and Joe, Howard turned to Jackson, 
who had been listening to the sailors in 
dazed silence. 

“If you want to get away from here, 
Jackson,” he counselled hurriedly, “for 
God’s sake keep quiet about me. If you 
don’t, Forbes is likely to keep us here 
for the rest of our lives. The chances are 
he will try to do it anyway.” 


IX 


Shortly after dinner the entire party 
set out for the village, which was, it 
seemed, only half a mile away, and would 
have been reached by Jackson and How- 
ard had they chanced to go in the right 
direction. 

Bill and Joe knew all the easiest routes 
across the wreckage, and led the new- 
comers by one, which, though not quite 
direct, yet involved the minimum of effort 
on Dorothy ^s part. Nevertheless, prog- 
ress was necessarily slow, and it took 
nearly an hour to go the so-called half 
mile. 

When the village was sighted, it was 
evident that considerable pains had been 
taken to make it comfortable. A score of 
modern vessels, mostly steamers, of 
about the same phase of flotation had been 

pulled into place and so bound together 
110 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 111 


as to constitute a solid mass. Over what 
had once been the interstices between 
them, planking had been laid, making it 
possible to go anywhere about the place 
without difficulty. Awnings, spread from 
mast to mast, gave promise of cool shade. 

^‘The cap’n fixed this up about a year 
after he came,” explained Bill to How- 
ard. ‘‘Before then we just pigged 
around any which-a-ways. But he says 
that what with new ships drifting in con- 
tinual, we’re gettin’ too far from the 
coast and we’ll have to move soon. Yon- 
der he is, sir. ’ ’ 

As Bill spoke, a tall, thickset man came 
hurriedly on deck, ran to the edge of the 
platform, cast a quick glance at the new- 
comers as they scrambled over the wreck- 
age toward him, and then turned and beat 
a rapid tattoo on a ship’s bell that hung 
close at hand. 

“That’s the signal that something’s 
doing,” explained Joe. 

The village awoke to life. Half a dozen 


112 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


hatchways gave out figures in every style 
of costume, and when the newcomers 
reached the deck, practically the entire 
population was waiting to welcome them. 

Forbes was first, the rest holding back 
respectfully to give him precedence. 

^‘Welcome! Welcome!’’ he called, hold- 
ing out both hands. ^ ^ Seldom indeed has 
any one been so welcome. And a special 
welcome to you, fair lady,” he added, as 
he bent low over Dorothy’s slender 
fingers. Then he turned to the villagers 
behind him. ‘‘Come, all of you,” he com- 
manded. “Come and make our new 
friends feel at home.” 

They came, all of them, crowding round 
the newcomers with a babble of greetings 
and questionings as to the world from 
which they had been so long cut otf. So 
rapid was the fire of interrogation, and 
so multifarious the questions, that they 
fairly swept J ackson off his feet, and left 
the other two in little better case. 

When the hubbub was at its height. 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 113 

there came, from behind the rest, a 
hearty, bustling sort of a voice. ‘ ^ Arrah ! 
arrah! boys,'’ it pleaded. ''Don't you 
see you're crowding the young lady? 
Make room for old Mother Joyce. How 
are you, me darlint? It's terrible glad 
I am to see you; gladder than you are to 
see any of us. I'll venture. There ! deary ! 
don't cry. It's all right." 

The old woman's voice dropped to a 
soothing note. For Dorothy, all the ex- 
periences of the past two weeks coming 
on her afresh at sight of a woman's face, 
had broken down completely, and was 
sobbing on Mother Joyce's ample bosom. 

' ' Oh ! ' ' she wailed, ' ' I didn 't know how 
awful it has been until I saw you. All 

these dead ships " Her voice died 

away. 

"I know ! I know ! It was fifteen years 
agone that I — but I remimber. There, 
mavourneen, be aisy. Come along down 
to Mother Joyce's cabin and have your 
cry out." 

8 


114 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


She took Dorothy down a hatchway 
some distance from the babbling throng, 
into a cool and airy cabin. 

‘‘Sit down wid yees,’’ she commanded. 
“Sit down with Mother Joyce and wape 
it all out. I understand, dear heart; I 
understand. ^ ’ 

Dorothy’s curiosity soon mastered her 
tears, and before long the two women 
were exchanging confidences like old 
friends. Belonging to two diferent 
social worlds, elsewhere they would never 
have known each other. But adventure 
makes strange companions. 

After a while Joe tapped at the door. 

“Cap’n Forbes says. Mother Joyce,” 
he explained, “as how he hopes you an’ 
the young lady will take supper with 
him.” 

Mother Joyce looked at Dorothy, who 
responded promptly. 

“I’ll be glad to do so, of course,” she 
answered. 

“All right, Joe. We’ll come,” The^, 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 115 


as the sailor footsteps died away, the 
old lady turned to Dorothy. ^‘My dear,’’ 
she essayed diffidently. “It’s cautioning 
you a hit I must be. It’s a bad state of 
things for a pretty young woman like 
yourself we’re after having here, so it is. 
Will you be goin’ to marry that young 
man who saved your life and who’s been 
so kind to you ever since the wreck T’ 

Dorothy sat up very straight, and her 
cheeks flamed. 

“Indeed, I am not,” she exclaimed. 

Mother Joyce looked more troubled than 
ever. “It’s not for idle curiosity I’m 

asking,” she continued, “but because^ 

Are you quite certain you don’t want to 
marry him! It’s good and true he looks 
and — ^maybe it’s not another chance you’ll 
be getting.” 

Dorothy’s cheeks still burned, but un- 
easiness tugged at her heart-strings. 
Clearly there was something behind the 
old woman’s words — something of grave 
iinnort, too. Joe and Bill had also hinted 
something she did not quite understand. 


116 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


“Marriage between me and Mr. How- 
ard is entirely ont of tbe question/’ she 
replied quietly. ‘ ‘ There are reasons that 
I can ’t go into now. But I wish you would 
tell me exactly what the trouble is, dear 
Mother Joyce; for I am sure there is 
something dreadfully wrong.” 

Mother Joyce studied the girl for a 
moment. 

“Faith and I will,” she acquiesced. 
“Maybe it’s all right it is — if you’re cer- 
tain you don’t want to marry that young 
man of yours. The trouble is the plenti- 
ful lack of females we have here in the 
sea. You haven’t seen Prudence Galle- 
gher yet. She’s the one other woman 
here. She drifted in alone and half crazy 
on the ship Swan two years ago. Her 
husband and everybody else had been 
drowned. In the two years she’s been 
here she’s been married four times.” 

“Four times! How horrible! How 
could she ” 

“It’s no choice she had. There were 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 117 

twenty odd men here and only two women 
besides her. It’s not much about men in 
the rough you’ll be knowing, I think. 
Prudence had to make her choice and 
make it quick. She had to, or — ^well, she 
did the best she could, and she married 
two days after she got here. Six months 
later the poor creature was a widow — ^her 
husband killed by a block failin’ from 
aloft and knocking his brains out. The 
morning after she married again. She 
had to, you’ll understand. Six or eight 
months afterward her second husband 
disappeared, and Cap’n Forbes declared 
it’s dead he must be, and that she must 
marry once more. So marry she did. 
Three months ago Mr. Gallegher’s wife 
died — Mr. Gallegher is the mate — and 
within a week Prudence was a widow 
once more. It was a big snake that Cap- 
tain Forbes keeps as a pet that did the 
worruk that time; it got loose and 
crushed poor Strother to death. The very 
next day Prudence was forced to marry 


118 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


GallegLer — and her with a two-months ’- 
old baby. Captain Forbes, you’ll under- 
stand, had a wife of his own all this time, 
but she died a week ago, and it’s myself 
that’s looking for somethin’ to happen to 
Gallegher any day. ’ ’ 

Dorothy gasped. ‘^You mean ” 

she cried. 

‘‘I mane that Cap’n Forbes wants a 
wife mighty bad, and that Gallegher 
wants even worse to find one for him. I 
mane that you’d better be considerin’ 
whether you’d rather marry your young 
man — or Cap’n Forbes.” 

Dorothy listened with strained atten- 
tion. This thing was too horrible to be 
true. That she, Dorothy Fairfax, ran the 
slightest danger of being forced to marry 
anybody was simply unthinkable. Mother 
Joyce was exaggerating. This Prudence 
Gallegher must be a weak sort of a 
woman — ^not one by whom to measure 
herself. 

She turned to Mrs. Joyce. ‘‘Have — 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 119 

Lave you been married more than once ? ^ ^ 
she asked. 

A grim look banished the kindly lines 
from Mother Joyce’s face. ‘^Only once, 
mavourneen,” she answered. gave 
them all to understand long ago that if 
they did away with Tim, it’s follow him I 
would — after I had killed all of them I 
could. And they belaved me. Besides, 
it’s an old woman I am — not a pretty 
young colleen like you. You’d better be 
after takin’ my advice ; marry your young 
man quick if you want him and stay on 
your own ship till he can get you away 
from here.” 

‘‘But they all say we can’t get away.” 

“Arrah! Go way wid you! Tell me 
twinty men can’t get away from anywhere 
if it’s any sinse they’ve got. Cap’n 
Forbes could have got us ashore long ago 
if he’d been wantin’ to. It’s talk he does 
about gittin’ stuck in the weed! What’s 
a lot of weed? You can cut through it, 
can’t you? Faith, the rale trouble is 


120 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


Cap’n Forbes ainT wantin’ to go, an’ 
he’s the only wan here with any seafarin’ 
since and any git up and git about him — 
unless your young man is after havin’ 
some.” 

‘‘Mr. Howard said we could get away 
if we could get a boat and compass 
and ” 

“Oh! Sure, you’ll have to be havin’ a 
boat and some instruments to guide her, 
an’ it’s none so aisy to foind boats here. 
It’s me own opinion that the cap’n has 
destroyed all he found, so it is. As for 
compasses and such like, sure the cap’n 
has thim right enough locked away in his 
storehouse, even though he kapes them 
mighty secret. He don’t want to go him- 
self and, be the same token, he don ’t want 
any wan else to go. He moightn’t be such 
a big man if he was ashore, so he 
moightn’t ! But you and your friends can 
get away — if Cap’n Forbes don’t pre- 
vent.” 

Freed from the restraint of Dorothy’s 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 121 


presence, the conversation on deck had 
grown even more animated than before. 
Howard and Jackson could scarcely an- 
swer one question before half a dozen 
more were plumped at them. Evidently, 
thirst for news of the world had not died 
out in the members of the colony. 

Howard noticed, however, that Forbes 
himself soon drew aside from the rest and 
engaged in earnest talk with Joe and Bill, 
evidently questioning them in regard to 
the Queen and her passengers, and that 
later he devoted himself particularly to 
drawing out Jackson. Finally he came 
toward Howard. 

guess your throat’s pretty dry, Mr. 
Howard,” he said, ‘^and if you’ll come 
down to my cabin. I’ll see if I can’t find 
something to irrigate it with.” 

Howard willingly accepted the invita- 
tion. From all he had heard it was ob- 
vious to him that this puppet king had 
resolutely set his face against any mem- 
ber of his colony leaving the wreck pack. 


122 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


and it was highly necessary to discover 
whether he would go so far as to oppose 
any attempts of the newcomers in that 
direction. If a contest was to come, the 
sooner Howard knew it, the better. 

Forbes led the way to his cabin and 
pushed forward a chair. 

‘‘Choose your own poison, Mr. How- 
ard,’’ he offered hospitably, indicating a 
sideboard loaded with bottles. “We have 
pretty nearly everything there is. A 
single steamer last month brought us 
more than we could drink in a lifetime. 
What I have here doesn’t represent half 
her selection. There is beer in the ice-box 
over in that corner, if you prefer it.” 

Upon Howard’s accepting the beer, his 
host set half a dozen bottles on the table, 
adding one of whiskey for himself. 

“Bourbon is good enough for me,” he 
observed. “I sample the fancy drinks 
once in a while, but always come back to 
the straight stuff. I’m surprised that you 
don’t also. You are a naval officer, aren’t 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 123 


you? I hope you are better up in other 
details of your profession.’’ 

Howard laughed. ‘‘Hard drinking 
isn’t exactly compulsory in the service,” 
he observed, lightly. 

“Oh, no offense! I was only joking, of 
course. I suppose you have specialists in 
that line as well as in others. From what 
I read in the papers that drift in to us 
here, I take it that everything is being 
specialized nowadays. What’s your par- 
ticular line — navigating, engineering, 
submarining?” 

Howard laughed again. “This is an 
age of specialization, all right, captain,” 
he returned, “but it hasn’t struck the 
navy yet. Quite the contrary! Only a 
year or two ago, Congress wiped out all 
special lines and insisted that all officers 
should know everything. Perhaps it was 
right, but ” 

“But you don’t think so. Well, it’s a 
good thing to know all about your own 
job if you can. I suppose, however, you 


124 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


canT help specializing more or less. For 
instance, you must have special men who 
manage your submarines.’^ 

‘‘Not exactly. Still, only a few men 
have had any experience in that line yet. 
The boats are too new and too few to give 
everybody a chance yet. Personally, I 
have been lucky enough to have had a 
good deal of experience with them, but 
comparatively few others have as yet.” 

Forbes threw himself back in his chair 
with a look of intense satisfaction on his 
face. “That’s good,” he said heartily. 
“Humph! By the way, Howard, this 
party of yours is a curiously mixed one.” 

“You think so?” 

“Oh, it’s evident on the face of it! — 
Have a cigarette? — A navy officer, a 
New York policeman, and a girl; that’s 
odd enough, isn’t it? Not that sailors 
and girls are antipathetic — quite the con- 
trary — but where does the policeman 
come in? I don’t quite place him in the 
picture.” 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 125 


Howard lighted his cigarette with a 
steady hand. believe he had been to 
Porto Eico to bring a convict back to 
New York,’’ he returned. 

‘‘A convict. Humph! Too bad he 
didn’t bring him here. ^There’s never a 
law of God or man runs in the Sargasso 
Sea.’ I’m up in the modern poets, you’ll 
observe, Howard. We have no extradi- 
tion here. Well, as I was saying, Nep- 
tune makes some queer bed-fellows, es- 
pecially here. Who is the lady, by the 
way?” 

^‘Miss Dorothy Fairfax, daughter of 
Colonel John Fairfax, a millionaire rail- 
road man who has been building lines in 
Porto Eico of late. Plis daughter was oh 
her way home after visiting him on the 
island.” 

Forbes ’s eyes glittered. ‘ ‘ Colonel J ohn 
Fairfax’s daughter, eh! I was reading 
an article in the paper about him the other 
day that said he owned about half the 
railroads in the United States. His 


126 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


daughter will be quite a catch for a poor 
man. Eh, Howard ! ^ ’ 

Howard made a slight movement. ‘‘I 
would rather not discuss Miss Fairfax, 
captain,’’ he returned, quietly. ‘^When 
and how can we get away from here ? ’ ’ 
Forbes held his glass to the light and 
squinted at it. ‘‘Well, Howard,” he re- 
marked reflectively. “I’ve been kind of 
expecting you to ask me that. In fact, 
I brought you down here to give you a 
chance to ask me. The truth is, you can’t 
get away at all unless you come to terms 
with me.” 

“What are your terms'?” 

“Well — I’ll come to that after a while. 
Look here, Howard, I’ve been here ten 
years and I never was so comfortable in 
my life before. I’ve lived easy and slept 
soft, and never had a minute’s worry 
about grocery bills or taxes, or any of the 
other plagues of civilization. And my 
men have been in the same case. They’ve 
had just work enough to keep them 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 12 ^ 


healthy, and just drink enough to keep 
them happy. If they were out of this, 
they’d either be working like dogs or 
drunk — also like dogs. Why in thunder 
should either they or I want to go back 
to that old damnable lifeT’ 

‘‘No reason at all, captain, if you’re 
content here. ’ ’ 

“That’s the devil of it. I’m not con- 
tent. I’m just fool enough to ache to get 
back. But I don’t want to go back empty- 
handed. I don’t want to go back poor. 
I want to go back rich, with influential 
connections, social relations, and all the 
rest of it.” 

Howard smiled. “You’re not the only 
one who wants all that, captain,” he ob- 
served. “There are others. 

“So I suppose. But the difference be- 
tween them and me is that since you got 
here I’ve got all this right in my fist. 
This morning it was far away; now it is 
close at hand. As I said, I’ve been here 
for ten years. In that time I have been 


128 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


over about five thousand wrecks, old and 
new. Nearly every one of them has had 
money on her. Some have had very large 
sums. Large or small, I have collected 
them all. It makes a great fortune for 
one; it is enough for two; but it isn’t a 
hill of beans among a score. ’ ’ 
am beginning to see.” 
couldn’t take this money away se- 
cretly by boat — it’s too bulky. I couldn’t 
take it openly without sharing it with a 
dozen others — and it would need about a 
dozen to cut a way through this damnable 
weed. I’ve been ready to go for six 
months, but I didn’t see my way. Now 
I do.” 

‘‘Well.” 

“Recently I found a safe, quick, and 
easy way for a man with the right tech- 
nical knowledge to get away from here 
with two or three people — and my money. 
But I didn’t have the technical knowledge. 
Of all the ships that have floated in with 
libraries on them, not one has had a book 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 129 


that told me what to do. Now you have 
come especially trained in the very line I 
want. Can you guess what my terms are 
nowV^ 

‘‘Humph! Perhaps. What is your 
way?” 

“Don’t worry about that now. It’s all 
right, and that’s enough. I’m telling you 
a good deal, because I want your help, 
but I’m not giving myself away alto- 
gether. But about those terms. If you’ll 
help me get ashore with my money. I’ll 
give you a hundred thousand dollars. ’ ’ 

Howard lay back in his chair and stared 
at his host thoughtfully. The conversa- 
tion had proceeded far otherwise from 
what he had expected. The man whose 
opposition to his leaving he had feared, 
was actually asking his aid. Yet this as- 
sistance was asked not slavishly, but as 
if the asker could compel it if he liked, 
but preferred to request. Howard felt 
that he must choose his words warily. 

“Such a question is hardly worth ask- 
9 


130 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


ing, captain/^ lie returned. course, 

I shall be glad to accept. I take it for 
granted that my friends are included in 
your invitation ! ’ ’ 

‘^Your friends!” Forbes burst into a 
roar of laugher. ^ ‘Your friends ! That’s 
good! That’s very good! One of your 
friends — Mr. Jackson — I intend to leave 
behind as a special favor to you.” 

For an instant Howard saw red. Then 
the fit passed, and he answered quietly, 
“You astonish me, captain.” 

“Oh, no, I don’t! Look here, I’m on 
to you, Howard. You are the convict that 
Jackson went to Porto Eico for. You are 
now supposed to be dead. Leave Jack- 
son here, and you can change your name 
and live anywhere in the world you like 
in perfect safety.” 

“And Miss Fairfax!” Howard almost 
choked as he uttered the words, but the 
necessity of dissembling was strong upon 
him. 

“Miss Fairfax will go with us — as my 
wife!” 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 131 


‘‘What!” 

“Sit down, Howard, and keep yonr 
shirt on. What’s the use of getting 
worked np. I know I’m not exactly in 
Miss Fairfax’s line, but she won’t be the 
only woman who has married out of her 
class. I’ll make good with her father, 
all right.” 

“Yon think you can get Miss Fairfax 
to marry you!” 

In spite of himself the scorn that How- 
ard tried to hide showed in his voice. 
Forbes did not notice it. 

“She can’t help herself,” he declared. 
“I’ve got her dead to rights. Besides, 
I’ve got the law — our law — on my side. 
You don’t suppose ordinary rules govern 
here, do you! Not much! The sexes are 
too frightfully disproportionate. Count- 
ing your party, there are just twenty-four 
men and only three women here. The 
coming of a new woman has always been 
the signal for trouble. Bad blood, 
quarrels, and murders have followed in- 
evitably. So we made a law some years 


132 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 

ago that every woman must marry with- 
in twenty-four hours after her arrival. 
Under that law I intend to marry Miss 
Fairfax. What have you to say about 
it?’’ 

With the last word Captain Forbes 
put his elbows on the table and leaned 
forward, staring into Howard’s face. 
Huge, shaggy, and evidently immensely 
powerful, he towered menacingly above 
the smaller naval officer. 

Howard wanted to say a good deal, but 
forbore. Clearly Forbes took him for 
an ordinary scoundrel who had his price 
like other scoundrels. If he was to help 
Dorothy, the obvious thing was to appear 
to fall in with the plan until opportunity 
offered to defeat it, or until action could 
no longer be deferred. That is, he must 
gain time, and the only way to gain time 
was to dissimulate. 

don’t believe I have anything to say 
about it just now, captain,” he returned, 
mildly, ‘‘except that I think you could 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 133 


make a better bargain with Colonel Fair- 
fax if you merely returned his daughter 
to him safely. She’ll hate you forever, 
you know.” 

Forbes’s brows relaxed. ‘‘Not much 
she won ’t, ’ ’ he returned. ‘ ‘ She ’ll come to 
time, all right, and mighty soon, too. I 
know how to handle the sex. She’ll be 
too proud to confess the truth, and she’ll 
praise me up to the skies. You’ll see! 
Besides, I don’t want the old man’s 
money; I’ll have enough of my own. T 
want his social help. Well! is it a bar- 
gain?” 

Howard hesitated. “I must think 
about it for a while, captain,” he re- 
turned. 

“What do you want to think about? 
Oh! I gniess I see! You’ve got an idea 
of marrying the girl yourself, I reckon. 
Humph! Son-in-law saves girl, and rich 
daddy saves son-in-law. I don’t blame 
you, but I guess I’ll just have to queer 
that game once for all. Gallegher!” 


134 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


The last word came like a pistol-shot. 
Howard leaped to his feet, only to find 
three armed men standing behind him. 

Forbes threw himself back in his chair 
and laughed. 

‘^Stnng!^’ he remarked lightly. ‘^Yon 
might as well go quietly, Howard. 
There ’s no use of committing suicide, you 
know. We won’t hurt you — ^you’re too 
valuable. And we’ll turn you loose — 
after the ceremony.” 


X 


Foe one moment, as the men closed in 
on him, Howard straggled with a furious 
desire to wrest a cutlass from one of 
them, and with it exact terms from the 
others. The odds, though great, were not 
necessarily overwhelming, and victory 
would mean much. Had he stood on equal 
terms before the law, he would have 
risked everything in an immediate fight. 

But he did not stand even. Against him 
as a convict fighting for freedom, Forbes 
could throw the entire population of his 
colony; even Jackson might join in the 
unequal odds. The result of a struggle 
on that basis must be inevitable; Dor- 
othy would lose her only defender. Later, 
when the time came, if it did come, to 
shift the fight to the defense of woman- 
hood, he would have a better cause and 
might win allies. So he surrendered. 

135 


136 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


^^Take him to the Chester,” ordered 
Forbes, ^‘and lock him up. Give him 
anything he wants to make him comfort- 
able, and see after his meals. If he makes 
any trouble, put him in irons. Off with 
you. ’ ’ 

Sick at heart, Howard marched away 
between his captors. The way led to the 
edge of the wide platform that constitu- 
ted the village, down a gangplank, 
and away for some distance across the 
wrecks. Finally it led through a rent in 
the side of a big iron steamer, and up to 
what had evidently once been the cap- 
tain’s cabin. Into this he was thrust. 

Gallegher paused, with his hand on the 
lock. ‘‘You heard what the cap’n said,” 
he growled. “You behave yourself and 
nobody’ll hurt you. And, remember, 
there ain’t a mite of use tryin’ to escape, 
because there ain’t nowhere to escape to.” 

The door slammed and Howard was 
left to his own reflections. 

His first act was, of course, to inspect 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 137 


his prison. It was not uncomfortable. 
Large, airy, and well furnished, it bad 
evidently been selected because all its 
sides were of iron, three of them being 
formed by the sides of the vessel, and the 
fourth by one of her bulkheads. Numer- 
ous port-holes admitted air and light, but 
were too small for a man’s body to pass 
through them. A skylight overhead had 
been closed with heavy timbers. Alto- 
gether it was a strong place. 

Before he had had much more than 
time enough to familiarize himself with 
his surroundings, the key grated in the 
lock, and one of his captors entered with 
a tray, which he placed on a table built 
around the mizzenmast of the ship. 

‘‘Here’s your dinner, sor,” he an- 
nounced. 

Howard came over and sat down. As 
he did so, his eyes fell on some curious- 
looking mechanism which the man had 
pushed aside in making room for the 
tray. A question sprang to his lips, but 


138 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


he choked it back as the other bent sud 
denly forward. 

‘‘I heard of what you said to Bill and 
Joe, sor,’’ he breathed. ‘^Is it true that 
you could get away from here if you had 
the chance, sorT’ 

^^True? Of course it’s true. Give me 
a boat, two or three men, and a compass, 
and I’d start away at an hour’s notice. 
I wonder that you men don’t see that.” 

^‘And will you take me and Kathleen 
with you when you go, sor! Kathleen’s 
my wife — Mother Joyce they call her, sor, 
though its nather chick nor child we’re 
after having, sor.” 

‘‘I’ll take anybody. But I’ve got to 
be free in order to prepare ” 

“Whist! That’ll be all right, sor. 
Kape a stiff upper lip and everything 
will come right. The young lady and 
you have friends here, sor. I don’t dare 
to stop now, but it’s back again I’ll be 
later on.” 

Howard made no effort to detain the 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 139 


man. He was in a fever of impatience 
to examine the instruments on the table, 
and the moment he heard the key turn 
in the lock, he pushed aside his dinner 
and began to finger them. 

‘‘It isn’t possible,” he muttered. “It 
isn’t possible ! Forbes would know better. 
But, by George, he doesn’t. It’s true! 
It’s true ! He^s locked me up with a wire- 
less outfit. If it’s only in working order.” 
He pressed the key and a rumble and a 
crash gave answer. “It is! It is!” he 
exulted. ‘ ‘ By Heaven ! It is ! ” 

“Now to raise somebody before Forbes 
finds me out,” he continued. “If the 
wireless only sent as silently as it re- 
ceived, it would be all right. But — well ! 
maybe no one will notice. It’s pretty 
noisy here! Anyhow, there’s nothing to 
do but try.” 

He placed his finger on the key. ‘ ‘ Let ’s 
see!” he soliloquized. “The naval sta- 
tion at Guantanamo is nearest, but I don’t 
know its call. I’ll have to try C Q D — 
the emergency signal.” 


140 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


Again and again he pressed the key, 
and again and again the apparatus 
roared, sending the cry for help broadcast 
over the sea. No interruption came. 
The village was some distance away, and 
the noise passed unheard or unheeded. 
‘^CQD! CQD!’’ he called. 

At last the answer came, faint but dis- 
tinct, whispering in through the micro- 
phone on his head. ‘‘Hello! Hello! 
Hello! ’’ it sounded. “Who^s this?’’ 

“Survivor of the wrecked steamer 
Queen, now on board an unknown steam- 
er in the middle of the Sargasso Sea. Is 
this Guantanamo?” 

Sharply the answer came: “Yes. What 
did you say? Survivors of the Queen? 
Good Heavens, you were given up for 
lost How many are you?” 

“Three! Miss Fairfax ” 

“Great Scott! Colonel Fairfax has 
been wild. Who else?” 

“Police Officer Jackson!” 

“Yes.” 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 141 

‘‘And Frank Howard.” 

“What! The murderer?” 

“No. The convict. This is he talk- 
ing.” 

“Oh! Beg pardon! Didn’t mean to 
hurt your feelings. Where did you say 
you were?” 

“We drifted into the Sargasso Sea on 
the Queen, and brought up finally against 
the wreck-pack in the middle. Then we 
changed to another ship. It’s a long 
story. You’d better note it down care- 
fully. I may be cut off any minute.” 

“Oh! I’ll note it down all right. Go 
ahead. But first about the others on the 
Queen. Two boats got to port all right. 
How about the third?” 

“Capsized! All lost except Miss Fair- 
fax, who was washed back to the Queen, 
and pulled aboard by Jackson and How- 
ard, who had been left there by accident. 
Now listen. This is urgent. We are in 
great danger' here, and need aid at the 
first possible moment ” 


142 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


‘‘In danger? What^s the matter?’’ 

“Listen, and I’ll tell yon.” 

Hurriedly, but concisely, Howard nar- 
rated their adventures, describing the 
wreck-pack and its queer colony, and 
pointing out the danger to which Miss 
Fairfax was subjected. Toward the end 
of the story, Guantanamo evidently be- 
came restless, for he broke in. 

“Say!” he clicked, disgustedly. “Do 
you expect me to believe all that?” 

‘ ‘ Surely. Why not ? ’ ’ 

“Because it’s nonsense. Say, friend, 
you are wasted at sea. You ought to he 
a New York yellow- journal reporter. 
Now, who the devil are you, really?” 

“I’ve told you.” 

“You’ve told me a pack of lies — beg- 
ging your pardon. I’d get into a pretty 
fix if I reported this nonsense; now, 
wouldn’t I?” 

“You’ll get into a worse one if you 
don’t. For God’s sake, man, don’t be a 
skeptical fool. As I’ve told you, I’m a 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 143 

prisoner, and am only able to talk to you 
because this man Forbes apparently 
knows nothing of the wireless. My jail 
may be changed any minute, and I may 
never get another chance. This thing is 
very serious. There are about twenty- 
five people hopelessly confined here on 
these wrecks, and aid should be sent them 
at once.’’ 

^‘Bah! You mean to tell me that 
people have been living there for years 
and years, and nobody has ever found it 
out?” 

^‘Lots of people have found it out, 
but nobody has ever gone back to tell. 
If you never heard of the wreck-pack, 
ask any old sailor, and he’ll tell you of 
it — ^though he’s never seen it or known 
any one who has. Why shouldn’t there 
be people on it?” 

^‘Well, suppose there are. How can 
we help you?” 

ship can get to us if it tries hard 
enough. The weed can be cut through. 


lU THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


thougli with difficulty. A sort of steam- 
saw projecting over the bow will do the 
work. The propeller will have to be 
screened to prevent fouling. Perhaps a 
paddle-wheel steamer would get along 
best. When it is once in, it should skirt 
the edge of the wreckage till it finds us. 
The latitude and longitude I have given 
you are only approximate. I have no 
proper instruments.’’ 

‘^Who shall I notify r’ 

‘^Notify Colonel Fairfax, first of all. 
This Forbes may keep his threat and 
marry Miss Fairfax by force, or he may 
not. He shall not if I can help it. But 
I’m a prisoner and helpless just at pres- 
ent, though I have made at least one 
friend and hope for some others. Any- 
way, Colonel Fairfax will want to rescue 
his daughter. Then notify the govern- 
ment; there must be ships at Guantana- 
mo now that could start for here very 
soon. Then notify the newspapers; if 
no one else will help us, they will. Notify 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 145 


anybody and everybody yon like. Stop! 
Somebody’s coming. Keep out till I call 
you again.” 

It was only the Irishman who came to 
take away the tray. He must have heard 
the rumbling of the wireless, for only a 
deaf man could have failed to do so, but 
he asked no questions about it, though he 
looked sharply at the instruments that 
Howard had thrust aside. 

Howard in fact gave him little chance, 
plying him with questions as to Forbes’s 
probable course of action. After he had 
gone, Howard talked with Guantanamo 
until late in the night. 

The next morning the man came again. 
‘^Can you foight, sor!” he demanded. 

< < Fighting is my trade, Joyce. Why I ’ ’ 

^‘Well, sor, the captain’s going to 
marry the young lady at four o ’clock the 
day, unless somebody stops him. And 
the only way to stop him is to foight him. 
It’s a big man an’ a bad man he is, sor. 
Are ye game for it!” 

10 


146 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


Howard smiled. ‘‘Oh! yes. I’m game/’ 
he declared. 

“Then I’U get ye out in good time. 
Tare and ’onn’s, bnt it’ll he a grand 
foight entoirely.” 


In accepting Captain Forbes’s invita- 
tion to supper Dorothy had taken it for 
granted that the other two survivors of 
the Queen were included, and was some- 
what startled to find that they were not. 

‘^Gallegher insisted on your friends 
eating with him, ’ ’ explained Forbes, with 
a smile. ^‘He declared that I might have 
the best, but that I shouldn’t hog every- 
thing, and I had to give in.” 

Dorothy accepted the explanation, but 
her heart beat anxiously. Nor was her 
anxiety lessened by Captain Forbes’s at- 
titude. Had she not been warned of his 
probable designs, she might have passed 
over his behavior as merely the would-be 
gallantry of an uncultivated man, and 
even then would have found it sufficiently 
offensive. But, in view of all she had been 
told, its import quickly became porten- 


148 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


tons. Between extravagant compliments, 
often so pointed as to cause her consider- 
able embarrassment, Forbes sandwiched 
encomiums of the life on the wreckage, 
for support of which he appealed to 
Mother Joyce, declaring that Dorothy 
would soon submit to the inevitable, and 
settle down to remain there for life. All 
suggestions as to the possibility of escape 
he pushed aside. 

^^Our known history of life here goes 
back for more than fifty years,’’ he de- 
clared, ‘^and in that time nobody has es- 
caped. Nobody ever will. It’s impos- 
sible. You will fight against the idea for 
awhile, and then settle down to enjoy 
yourself.” 

Enjoy myself!” 

‘‘Why not? We have everything here 
that any one needs — all the necessaries, 
and far more of the luxuries than any 
except a very few favored people enjoy 
anywhere. We have a storehouse full of 
everything that delights a woman, and if 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 149 

it was destroyed to-morrow, we could 
easily fill it again. Duplicates of all its 
contents will drift in to us again sooner 
or later on some ship. Ask what you will, 
and it will be my delight to lay it at your 
feet.’’ 

Dorothy tried to smile. ‘^Very well, 
then,” she particularized, ‘‘just give me a 
telegraph-office. ’ ’ 

“With pleasure. We have a complete 
outfit. I ’m sorry to say, though, that the 
wires are not strung yet.” 

“Then give me a boat and a — compass, 
isn’t it, that we need!” 

“Those are about the only things we 
cannot furnish. Miss Fairfax. When 
sailors are forced to leave their ships, 
they invariably take the boats and the 
compasses with them. But why do you 
wish to leave us ! It will he our constant 
study to make you happy. You shall have 
the best of everything, and your lightest 
wish shall be law.” 

“My only wish is to get back to dry 


150 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


land. If my wish is law, help me to do 
so.’^ 

^ cannot ! And I would not if I could. 
I have waited long for a woman as fair 
and sweet as you to drift in to me, and 
now that you have come, I will not give 
you up lightly. The wrecks and their 
contents are ours by right of salvage. 
You, too, are salvage' — and the fairest sal- 
vage I have ever known. 

This was forcing the game with a ven- 
geance. Dorothy’s lip quivered, and she 
cast a frightened glance at Mother Joyce. 
But that lady was eating her supper 
stolidly, and made no sign. Evidently, 
for the moment at least, she intended to 
let Dorothy play her own hand. 

Forbes continued: ^‘No, you are here 
for life. Miss Fairfax. I regret it for 
your sake, but I rejoice in it for my own. 
You are here for life, and you must make 
up your mind to it, choose a husband, and 
settle down.” 


‘‘I shall never marry.” 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 151 


‘‘You must consider a moment. There 
are twenty-two of us men here and only 
two women. Under such circumstances, 
how can we afford to permit any woman 
to remain single. We used to do it years 
ago, when the disproportion was not quite 
so great, and what was the result? De- 
cimation of our numbers, no less! The 
men quarreled and fought and murdered 
each other, exactly as wild beasts do, all 
for the sake of one woman. Well do I 
remember the last time this happened! 
In a week five men had been killed, and 
bad blood stirred up that did not subside 
for years. We could not chance a repe- 
tition of this sort of thing, and we made 
a law that every woman who arrived here 
must marry within twenty-four hours. 
She could choose any one she liked, but 
choose she must.’’ 

“But no such rule can apply to me.” 

“Why not? You are a lady, of course, 
and far above the level of nine-tenths of 
the men here. But there is the remain- 


152 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


ing tenth to choose from. Of course, 
none of ns are worthy of yonf but — ^we 
will make good husbands.’’ 

Dorothy tried to laugh the words away, 
but could not. She told herself that all 
this was some horrible dream from which 
she would presently awake, but all the 
while she knew it was terribly real. The 
toils were closing round her fast. Her 
thoughts flew to Howard. He, she felt, 
would save her, if man could ; but he was 
one, and Forbes and his followers were 
many. If it came to a struggle the result 
would be inevitable. What could she do 1 
What could she do! 

Forbes was watching her keenly. ^ ‘ You 
realize the situation now I he continued. 
‘^For our own welfare we cannot permit 
you to remain single. You could not get 
away, and we would not permit you to do 
so if you could. You must marry — in 
twenty-four hours. And since you must 
marry, let me advise you to choose one 
who can provide for you — and there is no 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 153 


one here who can do that so well as I. I 
won’t talk abont love — that is for boys, 
and I am a man; but if yon will marry 
me, yon shall be qneen here. Come! 
what do yon say?” 

Dorothy pnshed back her chair and 
rose. “I say that this is ntterly prepos- 
terons. I will not marry any one on com- 
pnlsion. Certainly I will not marry yon. 
I wish yon good day, Captain Forbes.” 

She tnrned toward the door, bnt Forbes 
stepped before her. 

‘‘One moment, Miss Fairfax,” he said. 
“I know how yon feel, and I do not wish 
to tnrn yon against me by nndne persist- 
ency. If yon want to go now, go! Bnt 
think over what I have said. I believe 
that yon will come to see that it is the best 
thing yon can possibly do. Talk it over 
with yonr friends, I think they will advise 
yon to consent. At all events, yon have 
twenty-fonr honrs — ^till fonr o’clock to- 
morrow, to get nsed to the idea. Take 
my advice and wait calmly till then.” 


154 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


Dorothy bowed haughtily. ‘‘Very 
well,” she returned. “I will wait. Now, 
will you kindly summon my friends. I 
wish to return to my ship.” 

Forbes’ lips curved in a cruel smile. 
‘^Your ship. Miss Fairfax,” he echoed. 
“You have no ship. You and your com- 
panions abandoned the Queen of your 
own accord, and by the law of the sea 
she and everything on her became the 
property of any one who salvaged her. 
My men have taken possession of every- 
thing, including your abandoned trunks — 
which are now mine. You have no place 
to lay your head, and nothing in the world 
except what you have on your person. 
However, I am not unkind. For twenty- 
four hours I will give you food and shel- 
ter. At the end of that time — ^well, we 
will see. Now you may go with Mother 
Joyce, who will care for you. And think 
over my proposition.” 


XII 


Dorothy’s hours of grace passed all too 
quickly. The girl’s natural impulse was 
to turn at once to Howard for aid, and 
when the moments sped by without bring- 
ing him, she turned to Mrs. Joyce and 
learned of his imprisonment. 

^‘But don’t you be worryin’ about that, 
miss,” said the kindly Irishwoman. ‘Ht’s 
safe and sound he is. The cap’n is just 
kapin’ him locked up till after the wed- 
ding.” 

^‘There’ll he no wedding,” flashed Dor- 
othy. 

^^An’ why not? It’s worse you might 
do, my dear. All men are cantankerous, 
hut Cap’n Forhes ain’t a had sort, if you 
take him the right way; an’ he’ll make a 
good husband — the best here, anyway. 
An’ you’ve got to remember that while 
a smart man might get out of here, if 
155 


156 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


he was free, even the smartest man — ^let 
alone a woman — couldn’t if the cap’n 
didn’t want him to; and sure it is the 
cap’n don’t want you to go. I know it’s 
hard, but I don’t see but what it’s the 
best thing you can do — seein’ you 
wouldn’t marry your friend, Mr. How- 
ard, under any circumstances.” And 
Mother Joyce glanced quizzically into 
Dorothy’s face. 

The girl blushed; then hid her face. 
^‘Oh! Mrs. Joyce,” she sobbed. — ^he 

— things were different when I said 
that. ’ ’ 

^^Oh! indade! Now, were they! You 
nad’n’t say any more, miss. A nod’s as 
good as a wink to a blind horse. It’s a 
fine, upstandin’ young fellow he is, and I 
don’t blame you. Joyce and I’ll do what 
we can for you and him. And you’ll not 
be lavin’ us behind when you sail away!” 

^ ^ Leave you ! Never ! ’ ’ 

Fortunate it was that this understand- 
ing had been reached so quickly, for little 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 15T 


further opportunity for talk was offered 
later. All that evening and all the next 
morning the members of the community 
visited Dorothy, one by one, each with 
tales to tell of the pleasures of life in the 
Sea and with praises of Captain Forbes. 
Not one seemed disposed to help the girl. 

Even Mr. Willoughby, the minister, 
could give her little comfort. When she 
appealed to him directly to help her, he 
squirmed uncomfortably. 

Captain Forbes is a man of wrath,” 
he mumbled; ‘‘hard to resist. My sacred 
calling is of little import in his eyes. If 
you decide to refuse him, I trust I shall 
find strength to offer you such support as 
I may. But you must remember that I 
am only one — and a man of peace be- 
sides.” 

Clearly there was little hope to be 
placed in the minister. But Dorothy 
made one more appeal. 

“You could refuse to perform the cere- 
mony,” she suggested, tearfully. 


158 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


‘‘And so I shall/’ promised Mr. Wil- 
loughby. “If I must,” he added, with 
quickly following repentance. “But to 
what end? Captain Forbes is a sea-cap- 
tain, and as such can perform marriages 
at sea. Whether he can marry himself 
is doubtful. But I know him; he will 
settle the doubt in his own favor and 
marry you willy-nilly. I — I really think 
that you had best submit. Since you have 
to stay here, you cannot occupy a better 
place than as Captain Forbes’s wife.” 
“But I don’t have to stay. I won’t 

stay. Mr. Howard promised ” She 

stopped and bit her lip. “I see you can- 
not help me, Mr. Willoughby,” she fin- 
ished. ‘ ‘ Good morning. ’ ’ 

The minister sneaked away, and Pru- 
dence Gallegher crept in, weak, ill, and 
frightened, to add her mite to the weight 
that was crushing Dorothy’s heart. 

“I’m sorry,” she whimpered, glancing 
fearfully behind her from time to time. 
“Oh, I’m so sorry. But — but hadn’t you 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 159 


better marry Cap’n Forbes! Nobody 
will dare to hurt him, and — and — yon 
won’t be banded on from one to another 
as I was.” 

This sort of thing, kept up almost with- 
out cessation for twenty-four hours, drove 
Dorothy almost to distraction. As four 
o’clock drew near, her condition grew 
pitiful. In vain she looked for a means 
of escape. If any had offered she would 
have taken it instantly, facing without 
hesitation the terrors of the foodless des- 
ert in the heart of the wreckage. But 
none did offer. Always she was sur- 
rounded by jailers. She could see no 
hope anywhere — nothing to do but resist 

till the last, and then What then! 

What should she do then! What could 
she do! One weak girl beset by a score 
of men. Her brain reeled at the thought. 

Eight bells rang out, and Joe appeared 
at the door. 

‘‘Cap’n Forbes says as how will you, 
an’ Mother Joyce please step on deck, 
miss,” he petitioned. 


XIII 


The deck had been decorated as for a 
gala occasion. Bright-colored flags were 
twined everywhere nnder the cool, airy 
awnings; canaries, in gilded cages, hung 
about, each carolling at the top of its 
tiny throat; the members of the colony 
were all standing about, each dressed in 
garments which, though perhaps lacking 
somewhat in taste and style, at least left 
nothing to be desired in the way of color 
or ornament. The scene, though odd, was 
undoubtedly bright and cheerful. 

Mother Joyce led Dorothy to a slightly 
raised platform, in front of which were 
ranged chairs, in which, at her approach, 
the sailors hurriedly seated themselves. 
Dorothy looked eagerly among them for a 
sight of Howard, and her last hope van- 
ished when she knew he was not there. 

As she stepped upon the platform, 
160 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 161 

Forbes came up from below. Clean 
shaven, and well and correctly dressed, 
he furnished a strong contrast to the 
others with their motley attire. 

He bowed courteously to Dorothy, and 
greeted her as though their relations 
were of the pleasantest. ‘‘Please sit 
down for a moment,’’ he concluded, and 
turned away without waiting to see 
whether the invitation was accepted. 

“Men,” he said, stepping to the edge 
of the platform and looking them over, 
“by our laws every unmarried woman 
coming into this community must, within 
twenty-four hours, choose a husband from 
those who come forward to otfer them- 
selves. The one she chooses must defend 
his right against all others, and, if con- 
quered, must give way to his conqueror. 
So she will wed the best man, and all 
smoldering quarrels that might disrupt 
our community will be avoided.” 

He paused a moment and then went on : 

“As you all know. Miss Fairfax joined 
11 


162 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


us yesterday. She is so far above all 
of us in beauty, grace, and culture that 
it is presumptuous for any of us to aspire 
to her band. Yet, the law is the law, and 
we must all bow to it. So I call on all 
candidates for her band to speak out that 
she may choose. I offer, for one. Who 
else comes forward?’’ 

He stopped and looked around inquir- 
ingly, but no one moved. Evidently all 
knew what was planned, and bad no wish 
to interpose. Even if not awed by bis 
ascendency, bis significant assertion that 
the favored suitor must defend bis right 
against all comers was enough to give 
them pause. For Forbes was six feet 
high, broad and strong in proportion. 

After a moment, seeing that no one 
spoke, Forbes turned to Dorothy. ‘^It 
seems, fair lady,” he began, ‘Hbat I am 
the only suitor for your hand. I beg you 
to believe, however, that this is rather 
from the desire of my men not to oppose 
the dearest hope of their captain, whom 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 163 


they so love, than from any lack of ap- 
preciation of your charms. But it comes 
to the same thing. I am the only can- 
didate. Does it please you to accept 
me!” 

Dorothy rose and faced him. ‘^Sir,” 
she said, with a break in her voice. ‘‘I 
am only a girl, alone, unprotected, far 
from all her friends. I beg you, I implore 
you, to be merciful. Do not do this thing. 
Let me go.” 

Forbes shook his head. ^‘Your pres 
ence here, single, must cause strife,” he 
began, ‘‘and ” 

“Then let me go away. Let me wander 
away by myself. You nor your men shall 
ever see me again. I will lose myself in 
the wreckage, and ” 

“You are salvage, and I cannot sur 
render you. ’ ’ 

“Think! Think! My father is rich — a 
multimillionaire. In his name I promise 
you a million dollars if you will spare 
me and get me back to him. Think! A 
million dollars.” 


164 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


‘‘Even if I would, it is impossible. We 
are all alike helpless here.” 

“You will not spare me?” 

“I love you too much to do so.” 

With a quick movement Dorothy 
pushed by him and faced the others. 
“Men,” she cried, “will you let this thing 
be done? Will you let me be forced into 
marriage with a man I loathe. For God’s 
sake have pity on me, and say to this man 
that he shall not do this thing.” 

The men shifted uneasily in their seats, 
but no one spoke. Dorothy’s eyes 
flashed. 

“Cowards!” she cried. “Is there not 
one of you who dares face this man. 
Come! I offer you a bargain. If any 
man will save me, to him will I give my- 
self in all wifely humility. Any man! 
Any man! Speak! What! Does no one 
speak? Am I so poor a prize?” 

“I speak!” 

Absorbed in the scene, no one had noted 
Howard’s approach, but at the sound of 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 165 


liis voice all faced him. His sea- stained 
clothes were torn, and there was a fleck 
of blood on his lip, but his glance was 
high. 

‘‘I speak,’’ he repeated. ‘‘Not for the 
prize, but for the honor of womanhood.” 
He turned to Forbes, who had flushed 
furiously at his appearance. “Ah! you 
craven,” he flared. “You thought you 
had me safe while you worked your cow- 
ard will. Look better to your shackles 
next time.” 

Three or four of the men had risen and 
were closing in on Howard, but Forbes 
waved them back. ‘ ‘ Since you are here, ’ ’ 
he remarked, nonchalantly, “do I under- 
stand that you offer as a candidate for 
the lady’s hand! If not, you have no 
standing.” 

“I offer for anything that will save 
this lady from your insults.” 

“Ah! So you do offer. That is well. 
That is in line with the very object of 
this ceremony and shows the wisdom of 


166 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


our laws. You and I will fight this out 
and bury all ill-feeling — in your grave. 
Kindly choose some one as second, and 
let^s get to work.’^ 

Howard looked around him. ‘‘1^11 take 
my companion, Jackson,’’ he decided. 
suppose you’ve got him locked up some- 
where. ’ ’ 

Bring him,” ordered Forbes, calmly. 
He turned to Howard and began to take 
oif his coat. ‘‘Get ready,” he ordered. 

“You’ll give me fair play?” 

‘ ‘ Surely. And marry you to the lady — 
if you win.” 

In the revulsion of feeling consequent 
on the appearance of her champion, Dor- 
othy’s limbs had given way, and she would 
have fallen had not Mother Joyce caught 
her and helped her to a chair, where she 
leaned back, white and dazed. When 
she recovered enough to note what was 
going on, Howard and Forbes, stripped 
to the waist, stood facing each other be- 
fore her, the latter towering, giant-like, 
above his smaller adversary. 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 167 


With a cry she sought to struggle up, 
hut Mother Joyce restrained her. Don’t 
interfere,” she whispered. ‘‘It’s your 
only chance.” 

‘ ‘ But he ’ll kill him. ’ ’ 

The older woman seemed to have no 
difficulty in assigning the confused pro- 
nouns correctly. “I’m not so sure,” she 
muttered consolingly. “I fancy the cap- 
tain has his work cut out for him. Any- 
how, it’s for you to kape still.” 

Jackson’s eyes had lighted up when he 
had reached Howard’s side and under- 
stood what game was on. “It’s many a 
fight I had in the ring myself before I 
went on the force,” he whispered, with 
something very nearly approaching en- 
thusiasm. “It’s a big fellow he is. Can 
you do him?” 

Howard smiled grimly. “I’ve got to,” 
he answered. 

“Well, take the tip from me and tire 
him out. He’s too big to rush, and if he 
hits you square once, he’ll knock you out 


168 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


of the ring. Sprint all you can. Get him 
mad. He^s got a wicked temper, if I 
know anything of men; and when he 
loses it, he’ll forget to guard, and you 
can slug him.” 

Under other circumstances Howard 
would have smiled at the detective’s un- 
accustomed volubility, but at the moment 
he had other things to think about. With 
a nod to show that he understood, he 
stepped forward to face his adversary. 

The disproportion between the two men 
was very marked. Howard was not a 
small man, but Forbes was several inches 
taller, and at least forty pounds heavier. 
His corded arms looked capable of felling 
an ox. On the other hand, he was twenty 
years older, and presumably, slower in 
his movements than the naval officer, who 
was in the prime of the late twenties. 

Forbes wasted no time in prelimin- 
aries. Evidently he meant to show his 
power by crushing his adversary without 
delay. The moment that Howard faced 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 169 

him he sprang forward and launched a 
right-hand swing that would have ended 
the fight then and there had it connected 
with Howard’s body. But it did not con- 
nect. Howard sprang back, just out of 
reach, and returned a half-arm jolt that 
brought the big man up standing. 

‘‘Ugh!” he exclaimed, stepping back. 
Then he grinned viciously. “You know 
something, do you,” he half soliloquized. 
“So much the better. There’ll be some 
sport in it.” 

He rushed in again, striking furiously. 

Howard gave ground slowly under the 
attack, dodging when he could, parrying 
as he might, every nerve alert to save 
himself from being crushed by the sheer 
weight of his adversary. In vain Forbes 
tried to beat down his guard. Dorothy’s 
frightened face was ever before his eyes, 
and he fought on breathless, but un- 
harmed, until the first fury of the attack 
had spent itself; until the passing mo- 
ments told him that the struggle would 


170 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


not be so uneven as it had seemed. Exul- 
tation swelled in him when at last he could 
stand steady and give back blow for blow. 

Gradually his opponent’s mood changed. 
From coolness to anger; from anger to 
baffled fury. Howard watched the 
changes as they mirrored themselves in 
the other’s face. And when, with the 
recklessness of utter rage, Forbes drop- 
ped his guard and threw all his weight 
into one smashing blow, Howard ducked 
beneath it, swung his right with deadly 
force against the bull neck and beat the 
devil’s tattoo on the thick ribs before 
him. 

Then the round ended. 

But Howard knew that there was still 
plenty of fight in the big man. He had 
shaken him, but had accomplished noth- 
ing more. Indeed, the fury of the attack 
in the second round was little less than 
that of the first, and Howard again had 
to give ground. Had Forbes been able 
to regain his temper as he had regained 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 171 


his strength, there would still have been 
little doubt as to the result. 

But this the captain could not do. So 
often had he fought and won in the past, 
so invariably had his bull strength served 
him well, that he could not believe that he 
had at last met one who could withstand 
him. Wild with rage, he spent himself 
against the impenetrable defense of the 
naval officer until the second round ended 
with the odds of the fight in favor of the 
latter. 

So plain was this that Gallegher urged 
treachery, only to be repelled; not yet 
would Forbes admit the possibility of de- 
feat. ^‘Naw! I’ll Mil him myself,” he 
muttered hoarsely, as, red-eyed, he stum- 
bled forward once more to the attack. 

Howard met him with changed tactics. 
Jackson’s trained eye had read the signs, 
and he had counselled the officer wisely. 
^‘Eush him,” he had said. ^'Eush him. 
He’s all in. Don’t give him time to get 
his second wind. Eush him.” 


m THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


And Howard obeyed, drawing on some 
fount of nervous energy for a fury of 
attack almost as violent as Forbes’s bad 
been. The fighting rage was on him at 
last, and bubbled over in words. 

^‘So you’ll persecute a helpless woman, 
will you,” he jeered, as he handed a 
jolt on the captain’s cheek. ^‘How 
do you like to face a manf Oh! never 
mind that eye ; you’ve got one left. Don’t 
worry about your nose; it’ll straighten 
out again. Here’s one for your solar 
plexus. Why don’t you guard better? 
And here’s the end of the show.” 

With every ounce of his weight behind 
it, he drove his left against the point of 
the captain’s chin, and that individual 
went down like a pole-axed ox and lay 
still. 

As he fell Gallegher sprang forward, 
belaying-pin in hand, but shrank back 
again as Jackson shoved his revolver in- 
to his face. 

‘^Hold hard!” cried the policeman. 
‘^Fair play, ain’t it, mates?” 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 173 


For an instant the situation hung in 
the wind as the sailors hesitated. Then 
J oyce sang out : 

‘‘Fair play!’’ he cried. “The cap’n 
said he should have fair play. And hur- 
rah for Lootenant Howard, says I. ’ ’ 

Sailors are like children; a straw will 
turn them. With one accord they burst 
into a cheer. “It was a good fight,” they 
cried. “The lieutenant’s won the girl 
fair.” 

While they had hesitated Howard had 
acted. He was under no illusions as to 
the permanency of their mood, and, even 
as they cheered him, he turned to 
Dorothy. 

“Quick!” he whispered. “Don’t lose 
a moment. Come, Jackson! Get Miss 
Fairfax out of this and back to the Queen. 
I’ll cover your retreat.” 

But escape was not to be so easy. As 
Howard turned to face the sailors, Forbes 
struggled to his feet. His face was gray 
with rage and his words came thick. 


174 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


You’ve won,” he gritted. ^‘You’ve 
won. Take your prize.” Then his eyes 
fell on Dorothy and Jackson, now close 
to the edge of the deck. ^‘Stop those 
two!” he yelled. “By Heaven, no one 
shall say Peter Forbes does not play fair. 
She’s chosen you, you infernal convict, 
and marry you she shall, here and now. ’ ’ 

Howard faced him. “I refuse,” he de- 
clared. “Miss Fairfax owes me nothing. 
I give her back her promise. ’ ’ 

“You do! Then she shall marry me. 
Me or you! The captain or the jailbird. 
We’ll have a wedding before we part.” 

The man’s face was a mass of cuts and 
bruises, and his words came gaspingly; 
but there was no doubt that he was in 
earnest, and none that he had the men 
behind him. 

Fickle as the wind, they veered back to 
his side. “A wedding. Let’s have a wed- 
ding!” they cried. 

Howard looked despairingly around, 
then darted to the mainmast, caught up 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 175 


a handspike, and swung Dorothy behind 
him. The fight would be hopeless, but it 
was for her ! 

^‘Come on,’’ he challenged. 

Grimly the men drew near, but before 
a blow could be struck, Dorothy’s voice 
rang out. 

‘‘Wait!” she cried. Then she turned 
to Howard. “If you will have me, I will 
marry you,” she murmured, gently. 


XIV 


Night was falling fast as Howard and 
Dorothy, with Jackson close behind, made 
their way slowly back to the Queen over 
the tangled wreckage, following the trail 
blazed by Howard two days before. The 
Joyces had promised to join them later. 

Except for necessary help and caution 
about the road, the three walked and 
climbed for the most part in silence, each 
immersed in thought. Only once did Dor- 
othy speak. 

‘‘Captain Forbes said that his men had 
taken possession of the Queen and were 
removing her stores,” she warned. “Do 
you think he was telling the truth!” 

Howard shook his head. “Probably 
not,” he answered. “But we shall see.” 

The Queen came in view at last, and 
each of the three thrilled at sight of her 
familiar form. Wrecked, ruined, half- 
176 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 177 

sunken, nevertheless she stood to all three 
as a home and place of refuge, however 
insecure. Glad as they had been to leave 
her, they were far gladder to return and 
find her untouched. For Forbes had been 
lying. 

With the touch of the deck beneath 
their feet, a feeling of embarrassment 
descended on the three. On the way over 
they had been silent because they were 
thinking ; now they were silent because of 
the strange new relation in which they 
stood to each other. Even Jackson was con- 
scious of it, and stammered and hesitated 
when he tried to speak; while Dorothy’s 
flushed cheeks and quivering lips showed 
that the nerves which had so well sus- 
tained her while necessity lasted, were on 
the verge of giving way. 

Fortunately supper had to be prepared 
and served and eaten, and these familiar 
tasks relieved the tension somewhat. 
Even then no one dared to speak of what 
had occurred, though no one thought of 
12 


178 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


anything else. The thing lay too close to 
their hearts to be lightly or easily 
broached. At last Jackson, with glances 
at his two companions, threw down his 
knife and fork and slouched out of the 
saloon without a word. 

Left alone, the girl and the man looked 
at each other, she with trembling lips and 
lovely, frightened eyes, and he with an 
infinite compassion in his face. 

^‘You want to say something to meT’ 
he questioned, gently. ^‘Say it. Don’t 
be afraid. You will find that I can un- 
derstand.” 

Tears welled in Dorothy’s eyes. ^‘To- 
day,” she murmured, brokenly, ‘‘I made 
a bargain. I saw myself trapped, driven 
into marriage with a man whom I loathed 
— oh, God only knows how I had come to 
loathe him ! Anything was better than he 
— anything! So I made my oifer. I 
would be a loyal wife to any man who 
would save me from Captain Forbes. You 
answered.” 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 179 


^‘I answered.” 

‘‘You are a much smaller man than 
Captain Forbes. No one would have 
thought you a match for him, least of all 
himself. He meant to kill you. There 
was murder in his eye. You must have 
seen it. Yet you faced him. Why did 
you do it?” 

Howard shrugged his shoulders. “You 
make too much of the atfair,” he said, 
lightly. “The man was strong, hut he 
was past his first youth and moved slow- 
ly. After the first two minutes I had no 
fear of the result. But you ask me why 
I came forward. What else could any 
gentleman do — and, in spite of my trial 
and conviction, I trust I am still a gentle- 
man. I came forward because I had to. ’ ’ 

“Then you did not fight for the poor 
prize I otfered?” 

Howard smiled. “Assuredly not,” he 
answered. “Why, you yourself saw that 
I was ready to fight again a moment later 
to avoid taking it!” 


180 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


‘^But you took 

^'Yes — I took it/’ 

^^And now I ask you to give it up 
again. I — I — Mr. Howard, I have heard 
of you for two years. You have been 
painted very black in my eyes. I have 
known you two weeks, and they have re- 
versed the picture. I should not have 
looked for generosity in the man I once 
thought you to be, but I beg it from the 
man I have found you to be. I am your 
wife. I have promised before God to be 
loyal, loving, and obedient to you. I 
made that promise with my eyes open, 
and if you ask it I shall try to keep it. I 
am not of those who take their marriage 
vows lightly. I am your wife and I am 
wholly at your mercy. But — but — you do 
not love me nor I you. We are mere 
acquaintances. Do not — oh, it is hard for 
me to say this. Have pity on me. Hold 
me, not as your wife, as I must hold my- 
self, but as only a poor girl in distress, 
and — ^sec, I kneel to you ” 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 181 


Howard caught her hands and drew her 
to her feet again. ‘‘Poor little girl,” he 
murmured gently. “So that is what is 
troubling you! Do not fear. You are 
my wife — yes. But it is a tie that can 
easily be sundered when once we get back 
to dry land. A marriage like this is no 
marriage without the after-consent of the 
parties. Any court in the land would dis- 
solve it — or, more likely, declare it null 
and void from the beginning. Do not 
fear. You are quite safe with me.” 

Dorothy’s breath came fast, but she did 
not speak. She tottered and put her hand 
out for support. Howard guided her to 
a chair. 

‘ ‘ Sit quietly for a moment, ’ ’ he ordered 
gently. “I must see Jackson about some- 
thing, but I will soon be back and help you 
to your state-room. You must be worn 
out.” 

With the last word he turned and went 
up the companionway, more to give the 
girl time to recover herself than because 


182 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


of any desire to see Jackson. As he 
reached the top of the stairs his foot 
struck something, and he stooped and 
picked up a pistol wrapped round with 
a half-sheet of paper. 

Wonderingly he took it to the lamp. 
He read: 

I know where Forbes keeps his rifles. Mrs. Joyce 
is going to get some of them for us. I’m going back 
to help. I leave my pistol in case I don’t get back. 
Anyhow, I guess you’d rather be alone to-night. 

Jackson. 

P.S. — That was a great match. — ^J. 

Howard laughed bitterly. Then he 
turned and descended the stairs. 

^‘Jackson has gone on an errand to 
Mrs. Joyce, he said. ‘‘He left his pistol 
for you. After what has happened, he 
thinks, and I think, that you had better 
be armed. If any man — if any man mo- 
lests you do not hesitate to use it. I be- 
lieve you told me once that you were 
rather a good shot.^’ 

It had been no part of Howard’s in- 
tention to spend the night upon the Queen. 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 183 

He had no faith in Forbes protestations 
of fair play, and felt certain that he 
would hear from that individual very 
shortly and in unpleasant fashion. Al- 
though he scarcely expected any attack 
that night, doubting Forbes’s ability to 
bring his men to the fighting point so 
speedily, he intended to take no chances, 
and to seek sleeping quarters on some 
near-by vessel. But Dorothy’s fear of 
himself and her very evident nearness 
to collapse, taken with Jackson’s unex- 
pected departure, had knocked his plans 
completely on the head. 

After Dorothy had retired, he sat up 
for some time considering the situation. 
He was terribly sore and wearied from 
the heart-breaking struggle of the after- 
noon, which had been nothing like so easy 
as he had portrayed it to Dorothy. Com- 
ing on top of the anxiety of his confine- 
ment, in ignorance of what was happen- 
ing to the girl he had promised to restore 
to her home, it had nearly worn him out. 


IS4< THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


The question that presented itself to him 
was whether he should trust to his belief 
in Forbes ^s inability to resume the strug- 
gle so quickly, and take his much-needed 
rest so as to be ready for the probable 
stress of the morrow, or whether he 
should remain on watch all night and 
thereby be less efficient the next day, sup- 
posing the contest were put offi till then. 

Doubts and difficulties lay in each alter- 
native, but he finally decided to sleep 
while he could, trusting to his life-long 
ability to awake fully and instantly at 
the slightest unaccustomed sound. He did 
not believe that Forbes and his men could 
steal upon him without waking him ; and, 
in any event, he could not hope, alone 
and unarmed, to keep them off the ship. 

So, after stringing several ropes across 
the gangway in the deepest shadows of 
the Queen’s deck, he slipped into his 
state-room, just across the corridor from 
Dorothy’s, and lay down, fully dressed, 
with an axe — ^his sole weapon, since he 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 185 

had given Dorothy Jackson’s pistol — 
close beside him. In an instant he was 
fast asleep. 

He was aroused several hours later by 
a sound whose cause he had no difficulty 
in interpreting. Somebody had tripped 
over one of the ropes he had stretched, 
and had fallen. Instantly he was on his 
feet, axe in hand, and was cautiously 
opening his door. Stillness now reigned, 
but Howard had no doubt that murder 
was stalking close at hand. 

With infinite precaution he stole from 
the room, noted that Dorothy’s door was 
still fast, and slipped like a shadow along 
the corridor. It took him half an hour 
to gain the other deck, scarcely fifty feet 
from where he had slept. But when he 
had done so, he was certain that no foes 
lurked in his rear. 

The moon loomed huge in the cloudless 
sky as he peered from the door of the 
social hall. Before him the deck stretched 
away, silvery-white except where criss- 


186 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


crossed by the black shadows cast by the 
stanchions that supported the half-furled 
awnings, and by the narrow border of 
shadow cast by the awnings themselves. 

Slowly he crept out into the black bor- 
der and made his way forward, eager to 
front the danger, whatever it might be. 

But all was still save for a very faint, 
rustling sound impossible to locate — a 
sound like dry leaves whisking through a 
November night ; a sound that made How- 
ard’s hair stir upon his head. At two 
o’clock in the morning courage is rare, 
and never perfect. 

Still Howard crept on until he reached 
a spot where a broken boat-davit was 
twisted across a stanchion. By this he 
paused and stood listening. 

Then, without warning, the attack came. 
From the cross-beam overhead something 
fell upon him with cruel force — some- 
thing heavy, crushing, deadly; some live 
thing that wrapped him round and round. 

With a half- strangled shriek of terror 



THE END COULD NOT BE LONG DEFERRED; YET THE MAN 

FOUGHT ON. 



9 



t 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 18T 

he caught himself back against the crossed 
davit and the stanchion, just in time to 
involve them in the coiling horror. His 
right arm, instinctly thrown aloft, 
grasped vainly at the throat of a huge 
serpent whose darting head cut fantastic 
silhouettes against the Milky Way, while 
its body tightened swiftly about his 
middle. 

Had it not been for the iron rods that 
shielded him, Howard’s first cry would 
have been his last. To the great snake 
the resistance of a man’s body was as 
nothing. One unhampered constriction 
of its mighty coils would have crushed an 
ox. But the davit and the stanchion 
stood firm ; not for nothing had they been 
planned to withstand the assaults of the 
sea. They held firm, while Howard, with 
starting eyeballs and slowly crushing 
chest, strove to beat back the forked death 
that flicked about his face. 

The end could not be long deferred; 
yet the man fought on, as living things 


188 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


will jSght for life — life so common, life so 
cheap, yet so desperately clung to. He 
fought and shrieked until the ever-tight- 
ening constriction stopped the inflation of 
his lungs; till the roaring in his ears 
swelled to thunder; till the driven blood 
burst from his ears and nostrils. 

Then came a flash and a louder roar; 
the gleaming eyes that confronted him 
grew suddenly dull; the great coils re- 
laxed and fell away; dimly he saw Dor- 
othy’s face; her gown white in the moon- 
light; the smoking pistol in her hand. 

Then girl and snake and moon and sky 
blended in one common blur of blackness. 
For the first time in his life Frank How- 
ard fainted. 

When he came to, he was lying on the 
deck, with his head in Dorothy’s lap. On 
his face her tears dropped slowly, one by 
one. As, dazed, he lay still for an in- 
stant, he heard her pray: 

^‘Oh, God! God!” she sobbed, ^^give 
him back to me! Give my darling back 
to me.” 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 189 


A mad throb of exultation crossed 
through Howard’s veins to be followed 
by a quicker revulsion. ‘^Not yet, oh, 
God!” he implored in his turn silently. 
‘‘Not until ” 

He opened his eyes and looked up into 
hers. 

The moonlight was white and bright as 
day, and for one moment each looked deep 
into the other’s heart. 

“Thank God! Oh, thank God!” sobbed 
the girl. “You’re alive! Alive! Alive!” 

Howard tried to smile. “Thanks to 
you,” he answered. “It was the bravest 
act I have ever known. I don’t see how 
>> 

But Dorothy threw up her hand. 
“Please! Please, don’t speak of it!” she 
implored. “I can’t bear it. I can’t bear 
it.” 

Howard struggled to his feet. He 
longed to take her in his arms and com- 
fort her, but honor held him back. Per- 
haps she loved him — ^yes, but she was 
overwrought. He could not take advan- 


190 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


tage of her emotion — nor of her position. 
Later, when she was restored to her 
friends — the light died from his eyes as 
he remembered his own doom. 

Thank yon,” he said softly. ^^It is 
all that I can say. Thank yon.” 

Dorothy’s bosom heaved. ‘‘No,” she 
said, “it is not all. Yon said more while 
yon were nnconscions. Yon were abont 
to say more an instant ago. Then yon 
stopped. Why!” 

“I— I ” 

“I conld read yonr heart in yonr eyes. 
Say what yon had in it. Say it ! Say it ! ” 

“I am not worthy. I am ” 

“Hnsh ! Not that ! Yon are not gnilty. 
Yon conld not he gnilty. Yon! so brave, 
so tender, so sacrificing ! Yon ! to mnrder 
a woman. It is not trne. Since the day 
I first met yon I have never believed it. 
Since yon told me the story, I have 
wanted no other testimony. Now, will 
yon say what was in yonr heart a moment 
ago!” 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 191 

‘‘I cannot. I 

‘‘Listen. To-night I said that we were 
mere acquaintances. I said I did not love 
you. I lied ! I do love you. With all my 
heart and soul I love you.” 

“Dorothy!” 

‘ ‘ Frank ! Husband ! ’ ’ 


XV 


Despite the nerve and body-racking ex- 
periences of the day before, Howard 
was up and on deck the next morning at 
the first peep of day, straining his eyes 
for sight of Jackson and the Joyces. 

The need for instant action was strong 
upon him. He did not doubt that Forbes 
had sent the snake upon him, just as 
(judging from Mother Joyce’s tale to 
Dorothy) he had before sent it against 
one of Prudence Gallegher’s ill-fated hus- 
bands, and he only wondered that the 
doughty captain had not followed up the 
attack. 

suppose the fellow didn’t know how 
devilish near he came to succeeding,” he 
muttered to himself grimly. ‘‘But he’ll 
bring his men next time, and we must 
fight or get out of his reach in a hurry. 
If Jackson and the others were only 
here!” 


102 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 19S 


But neither Jackson nor the Joyces 
were there. Strain his eyes as he might, 
Howard could see no moving figures any- 
where on the wreck-pack, and, with an 
anxious sigh, he turned away to inspect 
the scene of the last night’s encounter. 

Half submerged in the weed at the foot 
of the sloping deck he made out the great 
body of the snake, terrible even in death, 
and shuddered as he thought of what 
would inevitably have been his fate had 
Dorothy been less courageous or the iron 
stanchions been less honestly wrought; 
these last, bent almost double, gave mute 
but effective evidence of the mighty power 
of the reptile. 

Wishing to save Dorothy, as far as he 
could, from all reminders of the contest, 
Howard lowered himself to the water’s 
edge and poked the snake down beneath 
the weed ; then he climbed back to the taff- 
rail and again searched the horizon for 
sight of Jackson. 

This time his quest was successful. Ap- 
13 


194 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


proaching over the wreckage, quite near 
at hand, were four figures. As they drew 
nearer he recognized Jackson, the minis- 
ter who had married him the day before. 
Mother Joyce, and his jailer of the day 
before. Each of the men carried several 
rifles over his shoulder, and was girt 
about with belts of cartridges. Mother 
Joyce bore a less and indeterminable 
weight. 

At Howard ^s call, Dorothy came on 
deck to greet the newcomers. Eosy and 
smiling, with head erect and sparkling 
eyes, she looked little like the woebegone 
maiden who had answered Forbes’s call 
the day before. 

Mother Joyce’s sharp eyes quickly 
spied the difference. ^^Holy mither! 
What’s this?” she cried. ^^And was it 
you, miss, that didn’t want to marry at 
all, at all! And was it you that was so 
sure that you and Mr. Howard could niver 
be anything to each other! Faith, look 
at the bright eyes and the blushing cheeks 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 195 


of her! Sure, Tim, man, it carries me 
back forty years, so it does!’’ With a 
fond look she turned to the man beside 
her. 

‘^Thrue for you, Kathleen, darlint,” he 
replied. ^‘The top of the mornin’ to you, 
ma’am, and may you live a million years 

and have a hundred ” 

‘‘Arrah! Be still with your foolishness, 
Tim. Sure, you make the young lady 
blush.” 

Meanwhile Jackson was explaining 
matters to Howard. He had, he said, 
circled round to the other side of the 
village and lurked there for several 
hours, waiting his chance. Then he had 
slipped up on the deck and run directly 
into Mother Joyce, who promptly whisked 
him below. ^^Cap’n Forbes’s big snake 
had got away, and he had gone after it,” 

continued the policeman, ‘^and ” 

Howard held up his hand. ‘Ht won’t 
get away again,” he interjected. ^Ht 
came here.” 


196 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


‘‘Herer’ 

Howard nodded. ‘‘Yes, it came here,’* 
he repeated. “Came here and attacked 
me. It was a very intelligent snake — 
from Forbes’s standpoint. It would 
have killed me, beyond a doubt, hut for 
Miss Fair — but for my wife. She shot 
it with your pistol, Jackson. But we 
haven’t time to talk about it now,” he 
concluded with some impatience. “ Go on 
with your story.” 

Jackson, however, had little more to 
tell. In Forbes’s absence, it seems, he 
and the others had had no difficulty in 
getting at the rifles and ammunition. 
Further, under Mother Joyce’s direction, 
he had broken open the captain’s private 
storeroom and procured a compass, sex- 
tant, and a chronometer, which Mother 
Joyce had declared would enable them to 
navigate a boat as soon as they found 
one. “An’,” concluded Jackson, “I 
think we’d better be findin’ it soon, for 
Gallegher has gotten out a Gatling gun, 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 19T 


and is making every preparation to do 
ns up for fair.” 

‘‘I expected something of the sort,” 
said Howard, nodding. ‘^We shall be 
ready to leave the Queen the moment we 
have had breakfast. So, now, if you’ll 
come below ” 

At the breakfast-table Howard unfolded 
his plan. 

‘^None of us want to fight if we can 
help it,” he declared. ‘‘We haven’t any- 
thing to gain by it, and everything to lose. 
And we don’t want to stay near here. 
From all I can learn, Forbes has de- 
stroyed all the boats within fifty miles or 
so, and we must go at least that far away 
to have any chance of finding one. Now, 
what I propose is this: We will leave 
now in a few minutes, but instead of go- 
ing north along the coast, which is what 
Forbes will expect us to do, we will go 
east straight into the pack, make a detour 
around the village, and come back to the 
coast to the south. By this means I think 


198 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 

we will outwit him, and can make our 
preparations in peace. Without a com- 
pass, I might have hesitated to go into 
the depths of the pack, but since Mother 
Joyce has brought us one, we can afford 
to risk it. As there will probably be noth- 
ing to eat there, we must take food and 
water enough to carry us through. I have 
already made up three bundles of these, 
and it will take only a few moments to 
prepare three more. Then we can be 
off.’» 

Ten minutes later the party left the 
Queen forever. Dorothy’s eyes were 
streaming wet as she looked at the vessel 
for the last time. 

‘‘Frank! Frank!” she murmured. 
“We’ve been happy on her, after all. 
Shall we be equally happy elsewhere! I 
— would be glad to stay here with you 
if — Oh ! I know it’s impossible, of course. 
We must go back to the world and clear 
your name. Yes, we will! We must! God 
is good. I have confidence in His justice. 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 199 

He would not have let me love yon so 
much if He didn’t mean to clear you.” 

Hand in hand the two followed the 
others, already well ahead, plunging 
straight into the wreck-pack. Howard 
drew a long breath when they were well 
away without having seen any sign of 
Forbes or his companions. Unfortunate- 
ly, though he saw no one, he did not go 
unseen. As the little party vanished 
among the tangle of masts and sails, a 
man rose from behind a deckhouse, where 
he had been lurking, and peered after it 
till certain of its course, then he set oif 
for the village as fast as he could go. 


XVI 


It is one thing to lay a course even in 
the open sea, and it is quite another to 
follow it. Wind, waves, and currents of- 
ten drive a vessel from the way she wishes 
to go; and all of these had acted on the 
wreck-path, seemingly conspiring to 
make difficult the line of progress that 
Howard had mapped out. Again and 
again he had to make long detours to pass 
some insurmountable wreck that lay 
across his path, and finally he had to turn 
aside from it altogether to skirt a narrow 
but impassable channel of weed-grown 
water that corkscrewed unexpectedly 
across his path. 

‘Ht’s that hurricane we had a month 
agone, ’ ’ explained J oyce. “ It isn ’t often 
they come here, but when they do, faith 
it’s the foine mix-up they make ! I moind 
one of thim ten years agone! It split 
200 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 201 


the pack for miles back, and filled the 
hole np again with wrecks that would 
have made the fortune of a dime-museum 
man, so they would. The most of them 
were fair rotten with age, and sank as 
soon as they began to rub up against the 
strong new ships. The last storm wasn’t 
so bad, and, belike, it only split the pack 
here and there.” 

Howard nodded. The explanation 
seemed very probable, as in no other way 
could he account for the open channel in 
the midst of the vessel- wrecks. Mere mu- 
tual attraction ought to have closed it 
up years before. It made him anxious, 
for the channel had already led him a 
mile deeper into the pack than he had 
intended to go, and still showed no signs 
of ending. 

It might go on even to the heart of the 
wreckage, where lay the ancient ships on 
which all food had rotted away centuries 
before. If a former storm had opened up 
a channel that far, so might a later one. 


202 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


That the cases were parallel was soon 
exhibited with startling proof. For some 
moments Howard had been noticing a 
great grey hull, banded with tarnished 
gold, that loomed across the pack two or 
three ships ahead. As he drew nearer, 
he saw, with wonder, its strange archi- 
tecture. Huge, round-bellied, with castle- 
like structures reared at stem and stern, 
it rose about the other wrecks, tier above 
tier, with lines of frowning ports from 
which protruded the mouths of old fash- 
ioned cannon. No such ship had sailed 
the ocean for years — not since the days 
when Spain was in her glory and her rich 
fleets bore the riches of America to fill 
her already overflowing coffers. It must 
have lain screened in the heart of the 
ship-continent for at least two centuries, 
to be at last spewed forth in time to meet 
the curious gaze of an alien race. 

From the topgallant poop of a modern 
sailing-ship, Howard studied it curiously, 
while behind him the rest of the party 
looked on with amazement. 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS WS 


‘^Sure, and that’s the very spirit and 
image of them I was spakin’ about,” re- 
marked Joyce, triumphantly. ‘‘An’ what 
sort of a ship do you suppose she is, 
sor!” 

“She’s a Spanish galleon, beyond 
doubt,” rejoined Howard. “She’s the 
very type of those old treasure-ships. 
And there are more of the same kind be- 
hind her. Look!” 

Along the open channel, far away to 
the sunset, stretched a file of ancient ves- 
sels, now in single file, now in double. 
Not all were galleons, but all plainly be- 
longed to dead and gone ages. While the 
others of their kind had long ago perished 
from human sight, here, in this lost corner 
of the world, these had lingered on, slow- 
ly decaying, like the once mighty nation 
that sent them forth. Howard stared at 
them in wondering amaze. 

But Joyce recalled him to himself. 
“Did you say treasure, sor?” he insinua- 
ted. 


204 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


Howard laughed. ‘^Oh, yes/’ he an- 
swered, indifferently. “She^s a treasure- 
ship, all right, though that isn’t to say 
that she has treasure aboard. Still, it’s 
not unlikely. There may be a million 
apiece for all of us on her — if we could 
only carry it away. Hold on! Where 
are you going!” 

Joyce was already climbing through 
one of the open ports of the galleon, but 
at Howard’s call he paused. ‘‘Sure, an’ 
I’m going to look after that million,” he 
returned, defiantly. 

Howard hesitated. Then he noticed a 
restless movement of the missionary and 
eager glances by the two women and 
laughed. “Go ahead and look for it,” he 
said. “But be careful. Eemember the 
ship must be rotten through and through ; 
I doubt whether her decks will bear your 
weight.” 

Joyce disappeared, but a moment later 
stuck his head out of the port again. 
“She’s better nor she looks, sor,” he 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 205 

averred. ‘‘The planks are rotten, but I 
think they’ll hold. Perhaps your good 
lady would like to come aboard. ’ ’ 

Howard glanced at Dorothy. 

“His good lady certainly would,” she 
smiled back. A moment later all stood 
on one of the galleon’s many decks. 

Joyce was right. The deck, though 
rotted, seemed to be reasonably sound, 
and the stairway leading upward did not 
give way when Jackson mounted it. As 
he was the heaviest in the party, the rest 
felt safe in following him. 

Once on the upper deck, the cause of 
the ship’s plight was evident. All about 
her, tumbled in inextricable confusion, 
lay the bones of men mingled with the 
rust-eaten remains of guns and pikes and 
sabres. In some places, doubtless where 
the nameless fight had raged most fierce- 
ly, the skeletons were heaped high upon 
each other. Flesh and clothing alike had 
long since disappeared, but parts of belts 
and buckles and fragments of the tinsel 


206 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


of war remained to tell of the bitterness 
of the fight. 

Probably the work of buccaneers,’’ 
explained Howard. ^‘They did not hesi- 
tate to attack ten times their number, and 
often won by the very fnry of their as- 
sault. Evidently they did this time. 
Joyce, I’m afraid yonr million went to 
make a pirate holiday centuries ago.” 

‘‘Bad cess to thim, whoiver they were. 
But where would it be, sor, if it was on 
board?” 

“I really don’t know. And yet — the 
hold under the captain’s cabin, aft there, 
would be a likely place. Suppose you 
look there.” 

Joyce and Jackson hurried away, and 
soon the sound of dull hammering and 
the tear of rending wood came to the ears 
of the others, followed a moment later 
by a series of triumphant yells. Then 
Joyce appeared, fairly mad with excite- 
ment. 

“Hurroush ! Hurroush ! ” he screamed. 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 207 


‘‘We Ve found it ! WeVe found it! Tons 
and tons of solid gold! Kathleen, ma- 
voiirneen, we’re rich — ^we’re rich! We’ll 
go back to Galway and buy the little place 
bey ant the hill, and ” 

“Whist! Whist! Tim, man! An’ will 
you first be tellin’ me how you’re going 
to get yerself away, let alone your tons 
of gold?” 

So absorbed was the party in the dis- 
covery of the gold that they forgot every- 
thing else — the danger from Forbes, the 
utter uselessness of the treasure, the 
necessity of crossing the channel and 
making their way to the southern coast. 
Even Dorothy, used to wealth as she was, 
caught the infection, and babbled away as 
excitedly as a child. 

Howard was the first to recover his 
poise and to plan for the future. It was, 
he knew, utterly hopeless to try to tear 
Joyce and Jackson, or even the mission- 
ary away from the galleon until their ex- 
citement had spent itself. Indeed, he 


208 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 

himself felt positively ill at thought of 
abandoning the gold, unavoidable as such 
action undoubtedly was. By rough cal- 
culation, he estimated that there were 
twelve tons of the treasure, worth about 
six million dollars, under their very feet, 
free for them to carry away, and yet as 
utterly unavailable as so much sand. In- 
deed, in so far as unwillingness to leave 
it should delay movements of the party, 
it was a positive detriment. 

He turned and looked at the others. 
Joyce, Jackson, the missionary, and even 
Mother Joyce, were working as they had 
never worked before, taking from the 
hold the golden bars, each a load for a 
strong man, and staggering on deck 
with them in their arms. In vain, How- 
ard tried to check them ; they only 
glared at him, cursed, and hurried back 
for another load. Joyce and his wife, 
too old for such labor, soon had to give 
way, crying like children as they did so; 
but the others toiled on, hot, black with 
the grime of ages, half ill from the smells 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS ^09 

of the shut, musty hold. Their muscles 
cracked; their backs ached; the sweat 
streamed down their faces, but still they 
kept on. 

Sick at heart, Howard turned from the 
scene and wandered to the side of the 
galleon, where he stood, looking east, 
hoping the end of the zigzag channel 
might be somewhere in sight. In vain! 
As far as his eyes could serve, it stretched 
away. 

Disappointed, his glance dropped to 
the open water of the channel close at 
hand, and he stood transfixed. Close be- 
side the galleon, moored strongly fore 
and aft, lay a slender, queer- shaped boat 
about sixty feet long. It needed not the 
trained knowledge of the naval officer to 
tell that it was a submarine. 

Intensely modern in its lines, it was as 
much out of place in that ancient com- 
pany as would be a rifle in the hands of 
Caesar’s legionaries. Howard’s mouth 
fairly dropped open as he gazed at it. 

14 


210 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


But in a moment understanding came. 
This was the means of escape that Forbes 
had spoken of : safe, quick, and easy for 
one with the necessary technical knowl- 
edge; the gold on the galleon was part 
of the fortune that he wanted to get home 
in safety. No wonder he had been eager 
to enlist Howard’s aid; and he could have 
had it — ^had it all, if he had not presumed 
on his power to grasp the girl, too ! Now 
he would lose all. 

Dorothy had tired of the gold and was 
standing on the deck, looking wondering- 
ly around. Howard called her, and to- 
gether they descended to the lower deck 
of the galleon, and, slipping out through 
a port opposite to that by which they had 
entered, stepped easily out upon the deck 
of the submarine, which floated high in 
the water. With trembling fingers, How- 
ard pushed back the bolts that held the 
manhole cover in place, lifted it off, and 
peered into the darkness of the interior. 
‘^I’ll be back in a moment,” he promised. 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 211 


glancing up at Dorothy as he swung him- 
self downward. 

Soon he was back again with radiant 
features. ‘‘She’s in perfect condition, so 
far as I can tell without starting the en- 
gines,” he announced, “and I guess they 
are all right. She’s almost the latest type 
in submarines — gas-engine for running at 
the surface, and an electric motor for 
use below. Her oil-tanks are full, and 
she has an extra supply in glass jars and 
plenty of other necessary stores. Unless 
there’s something wrong about her that 
I can’t see, she’ll get us all to land with- 
out the least difficulty.” 

“Where did she come from!” 

“Straight from heaven, I guess. At 
least, I can’t imagine how else she got 
into the sea. No, stop ! I believe — Yes, 
by George, that’s it. Maybe you remem- 
ber that a Spanish cruiser was lost at sea 
two or three years ago — disappeared in 
a big storm and was never heard of 
again! If I remember rightly, she had 


212 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


a submarine on board. This may be It. 
Yes! See! Here’s its name — Tiburon; 
that’s Spanish for Seashark. That 
cruiser must have drifted in here with 
it on board.” 

‘‘But where is she? How did this boat 
get here — to this very place?” 

“I don’t know, but I can guess. Forbes 
must have brought it here. He threw out 
liints about such a boat the first time I 
talked with him. Yes, he must have 
brought it here. How he managed it I 
don’t know, and I don’t much care. The 
boat is ours now by that same law of sal- 
vage by which he claimed the Queen and 
her contents. What’s sauce for the goose 
will do for the gander. But think how 
marvellous it is that we should have come 
here, straight as a homingbird — to here! 
the exact place where he had left his gold 
and his boat. And, yet, after all, it is 
not quite so marvellous as it seems, since 
he could hardly have kept her anywhere 
except up this channel, and we have been 
following the line of it for miles.” 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 213 


‘^Can we get away on herT’ 

‘^Certainly! All of ns, and more, too, 
if necessary.’’ 

‘‘But how will we get through the 
weed?” 

“We won’t go through it. We’ll go 
under it. The weed isn’t thick, you know 
— only a few feet at most; it grows on 
top of the water, which is two miles deep 
here, and we’ll simply dive under it.” 

Dorothy shuddered. “Go under the 
water, you mean?” she questioned. “Oh! 
Frank, is it safe?” 

“Safe? Surely! I have been down 
many a time in boats much like this. Of 
course — I won’t deceive you — accidents 
are always possible, but there is really 
little risk, if the machinery works well. 
And we can’t tell about that till we try. 
Don’t be afraid, dear. God has been too 
good to us to let it all come to naught 
now.” 

“I’m not afraid, Frank. I’m not afraid 
anywhere with you, my king of men.” 


214 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 

Howard had something to say to this, 
but it is scarcely worth setting down; 
lovers’ confidences seldom are. By and 
by he started up. ‘‘I’m afraid we’re as 
mad one way as those people on the gal- 
leon are in another,” he smiled. “I’m 
wasting valuable time that should be used 
in getting you out of this before Forbes 
finds us. He’s sure to be looking up this 
place very soon.” 

A thought struck Dorothy. “Oh, those 
poor people ! ’ ’ she exclaimed. ‘ ‘ Can ’t you 
take some of their gold for them, Frank? 
A little money will mean so much to the 
Joyces. They are too old to go to work 
again, and ” 

“It would come in rather handy with 
me, too. But I don’t see — By George! 
Yes, I think I do I Let’s look.” He dived 
down again into the body of the sub- 
marine and soon reappeared, his face 
radiant. 

“There is about five tons of detach- 
able lead ballast in the bottom,” he cried, 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 215 

joyously. ''We can take it out, and put 
gold in its place^ — two million dollars’ 
worth. If you will wait here. I’ll go and 
tell the others. Maybe they are tired en- 
ough to listen to reason now.” 

They were! Howard found them all 
sitting glumly on the deck of the galleon, 
glaring despairingly at the great pile of 
gold bars they had extracted from the 
hold. One by one they had dropped their 
loads and sank down where they stood, 
when, with increasing weariness, the situ- 
ation had at last dawned upon them. 
When Howard approached, they did not 
heed him further than to cast savage 
glances in his direction. Then they re- 
turned to contemplation of the gold. 

Howard understood the situation with- 
out words. "You oughtn’t to have 
worked so hard,” he observed, in a mat- 
ter-of-fact tone. "You, especially, Joyce. 
And you, Mrs. Joyce. You’ll feel this 
to-morrow. But now that you have got- 
ten all the gold up here, I’m glad to tell 


216 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


you that IVe got a boat outside that will 
carry us, and just about this much gold 
besides — say a third of a million for each 
of us. The rest, I’m afraid, we’ll have 
to abandon.^’ 



IT TOOK ONLY ABOUT TWO HOURS TO DUMP THE LEAD OUT OF 
THE SUBMARINE AND REPLACE IT WITH THE GOLD. 


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. •. ' 1. 


XVII 


Five tons of gold, worth about three 
million dollars, is not near so hard to 
move as five tons of coal, for instance, 
especially when it is put in seventy-five 
pound bars and there is plenty of tackle 
handy. It took Jackson, Joyce, and Wil- 
loughby only about two hours to dump 
the lead out of the submarine and replace 
it with the gold — surely the richest bal- 
last the world ever saw. 

Meanwhile Howard, after stationing 
Dorothy and Mother Joyce in elevated 
positions where they could watch for the 
possible approach of Forbes and his men, 
had set to work to get the submarine into 
order, oiling the machinery, testing the 
engines and all the various pumps and 
motors, and finally starting the gas-en- 
gine, which discharged the double duty 
of driving the boat while on the surface, 
217 


21S THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


and of charging the electric accumula- 
tors for use below. All this took time, 
and was not finished until after the last 
bar of gold had been stored away in 
place. 

Then Howard called the others around 
him. ^‘Before we start, he said, 
have something to tell you. Until now 
I have kept it to myself, because I did 
not want to rouse any false hopes. Joyce, 
did you ever hear of wireless tele- 
graphy U’ 

Joyce scratched his head. ‘‘And whaUs 
that, sorU’ he demanded. 

“Telegraphy without the aid of wires. 
I didn’t suppose any of you here had ever 
heard of it, else Captain Forbes would 
certainly not have shut me in the opera- 
ting-room of a steamer that had a full 
outfit in perfect working order. During 
the time I was confined there I was in 
constant communication with the naval 
station at Guantanamo. I told them of 
our plight, and I will venture to say that 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 219 


the papers of the country are ringing 
with the story of the Sargasso Sea colony 
and with our personal adventures. Tow- 
ard the end — just before Joyce set me 
free — I got into communication with your 
father, Dorothy. He was wild with de- 
light to know that you were alive and 
was about to start to rescue you. In 
fact, half a dozen vessels are probably 
now making an effort to break a way 
through the weed to aid us. If we can 
get back to the coast and wait, we are 
tolerably sure to be taken off sooner or 
later. Now, the question is whether we 
shall wait or not!’’ 

Joyce and his wife had listened in 
dazed silence. ‘‘Do you mane, sor,” de- 
manded the former, “that you can talk 
through the air with those quare instru- 
ments in that little room!” 

“That’s it exactly, Joyce. I can, and 
I did. But let me get back to the point. 
I could give our friends only a very 
doubtful approximation of our latitude 


220 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


and longitude, so that it may take them a 
long time to find us, if they ever do. Not 
hearing further from us, they may con- 
clude that the whole thing is a fake and 
give up the search. They will certainly 
have a long and tedious battle with the 
weed. Altogether, if they get anywhere 
near the right spot in less than a month 
it will be most surprising. Certainly 
they will not in less than two weeks. Now, 
what can we do during the interval! If 
we decide to wait for them, we must run 
down the coast and establish a camp 
somewhere — as far from the village as 
we can get. Perhaps I can find another 
wireless outfit and get into communica- 
tion with Guantanamo again. Certainly, 
we can find food and shelter, and all we 
will have to do will be to wait — supposing 
that Forbes doesn’t find us, which he 
will move heaven and earth to do when 
he finds we have his gold and his boat.” 

^‘That is one alternative open to us. 
The other, of course, is to dive under 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 221 

the weed and start for home at once. If 
we meet one of the searching steamers, 
all right; if we don’t, we can get to port 
under our own power. There is a risk 
about such an attempt, of course, but I 
don’t think it’s a very great one. Now, 
this is the situation : what shall we do ! ” 
Howard paused, and the others looked 
at each other doubtfully. Finally, Mr. 
Willoughby cleared his throat. ^‘1 con- 
fess,” he observed hesitatingly, ^4hat I 
fear the depths of the sea. I should much 
prefer to remain on top of it and go home 
in a steamer. May we not run down 
this — er — river on the surface and talk 
it over as we go!” 

^ ‘ Surely. That ’s good sense. W e ’ll do 
it. Joyce, suppose you run up on the 
galleon and take a last look for Captain 
Forbes. Meanwhile, everybody else get 
aboard. Hurry, J oyce ! ’ ’ 

Joyce hurried. In five minutes he came 
racing back as fast as his legs would 
carry him. '‘The cap’n’s cornin’,” he 


222 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


cried. Coming with his whole force. 
He isn’t three ships away.” 

Howard smiled grimly. ‘‘Just too 
late,” he exclaimed. “On board with 
you, Joyce! Quick! Off we go!” With 
the word, he cast loose the last mooring, 
and the Seashark moved slowly away. 

As, with gathering headway she 
rounded the galleon’s high-decked poop, 
she came in view of a dozen or more 
armed men, who were rapidly clamber- 
ing over the wrecks, and who burst into 
excited babble as they spied the little ves- 
sel. An instant later Forbes appeared. 

“Curse you!” he shrieked. “I’ll get 
you yet.” He threw his rifle to his 
shoulder and fired, his men following suit 
with a scattering volley. 

But at the first sign of hostilities, 
Howard, who was alone on deck, dropped 
nimbly down inside the body of the Sea- 
shark, and remained, steering by aid of 
the camera lucida put there for the pur- 
pose, until a curve in the channel shel- 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 223 


tered the little vessel from the bullets 
that had pattered harmlessly around her. 

For an hour the Seashark dropped 
swiftly down the slowly widening channel 
between ever-changing banks of massed 
ships. In that hour she passed in review 
the shipping of more than two centuries. 
Squat-bellied, round-bowed Dutchmen, 
high-pooped Spaniards, clippers that had 
made the American flag famous, frigates 
shot-torn and shattered in the American 
Civil War, deep-water ships still bearing 
the indelible imprint of the Chinese trade, 
steamers old and new — one by one they 
passed in a progression constantly grow- 
ing more and more modern. Howard, 
alone in the conning-tower, glanced at 
them with wonder ; never before had they 
so impressed him. Until then, nearness 
had obscured the vastness of the ruin, 
and only now had the full meaning of it 
all been hammered into his mind. 

But he resolutely threw off the spell, 
and concentrated his entire attention on 


224 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


the navigation of his little vessel. It was 
very necessary. The channel, being new- 
ly formed, was reasonably clear of weed, 
but it was impossible to guess how soon 
its character might change. The smallest 
patch of vegetation might foul the screw 
of the Sea shark, or might conceal a 
water-logged spar, floating just awash, 
that would rip a plate from her bow and 
send her to the bottom, ending at once 
the lives of the castaways and their 
dreams of fortune. In some ways it 
would be safer beneath the water; yet 
Howard knew that every turn of the gas- 
engines was aiding to store up power in 
the electric accumulators, on which alone 
they must depend when the time came to 
dive. He did not dare to go below an in- 
stant sooner than he must. 

After an hour the channel opened more 
rapidly, and the weed began to thicken, 
showing that the edge of the wreck-pack 
was near. Soon the accumulation grew 
so thick that it was no longer safe to push 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 225 


through it. Howard glanced at the in- 
dicators that measured the power accu- 
mulated. Enough to run us three and 
a half hours, ’ ’ he murmured, ^ ^ or perhaps 
four. At eight knots, that means about 
twenty-five miles of distance. Twenty- 
five miles! Humph! I guess it’s safe.” 

He brought the boat to a stop, and 
spoke to those in the semi-darkness below. 

^‘Well,” he queried, ‘4iave you de- 
cided ? Is it go ahead, or land and wait 1 ’ ’ 

No one answered, and in the stillness 
he heard up-channel the far-off chug-chug 
of a boat rapidly driven. Humph!” he 
exclaimed, bending down again. ‘‘Forbes 
seems to have been well supplied with 
boats. He’s after us in a steam-launch. 
That settles the question definitely. 
We’ve got to dive. If any one wants to 
take a last look at this marvellous place, 
now is the time.” 

No one spoke. 

Howard laughed. “What!” he ex- 
claimed. “Nobody! Joyce, don’t you 
15 


^26 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


want to see the last of your old homeT’ 

Joyce shook his head. Faith,” he 
answered, ‘^IVe seen enough of it to do 
me for the rest of my life.” 

‘^Jackson?” 

‘‘New York’s good enough for me.” 

“Mr. Willoughby r’ 

The missionary looked up. “Man! 
Man!” he cried. “How can you think 
of such things when we are about to 
plunge into uttermost peril of our lives? 
Bather, let us pray.” 

“Pray by all means, Mr. Willoughby. 
More things are wrought by prayer than 
this world dreams of, you know. Dor- 
othy, don’t you want to look?” 

But Dorothy, too, shook her head. “No, 
Frank,” she answered. “I never want 
to see the horrible place again.” 

“Then down we go. Here comes 
Forbes, by the way.” 

Around a curve, up-channel, appeared 
a steam-launch, still far off, but rapidly 
approaching. Howard stood up and 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 227 

waved his hand sarcastically; then, with 
rapid motions, snapped on the manhole 
cover, cut off the gas-engine, and threw 
on the electric starting-lever. Then, as 
the little vessel started forward, he turned 
the diving-rudder downward. 

Instantly the Seashark slid gracefully 
down beneath the ripples. From her 
little turret sprang out a sword of white 
light that pierced the water before her, 
while within a score of tiny bulbs il- 
lumined the darkness. Down she went; 
down, down, till the gage at Howard’s 
hand showed that a depth of fifty feet 
had been attained ; then slowly he shifted 
the diving rudders until the boat held 
steadily to her depth, the rudders just 
balancing her tendency to rise to the sur- 
face. ‘‘All set,” he called down cheerily, 
but without moving his gaze from the 
front. “Nothing to do now but go ahead. 
Make yourselves comfortable. We won’t 
come to the surface for three hours, and 
perhaps longer.” 


228 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 

No one answered. The experience, ut- 
terly new to them all, was sufficiently 
terrifying to destroy the desire for con- 
versation. Shut up in this tiny shell 
which might any moment prove their 
tomb, fifty feet below the surface of the 
ocean, driving forward blindly into the 
unknown, it would have taken one braver 
— or more callous — ^than any there to 
make merry. Howard, used as he was 
to submarine work, might have cheered 
them up, had he not been compelled to 
give all his attention to driving the ves- 
sel. 

For the dangers, though not what the 
rest vaguely conceived, were by no 
means imaginary. Let the Seashark rise 
a few feet above the level at which she 
ran, and she might easily smash herself 
against a more than ordinarily deeply 
sunken wreck. Let her plunge too deep' 
ly, and the increased pressure of the 
water might force its way in at some 
weak spot, and crush her like an egg- 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 229 

shell. Let her power give out too soon, 
at a spot where she could not come to 
the surface to rim her gas-engine, and 
so replenish her accumulators, and they 
would all perish miserably. On Howard 
rested all the responsibility, and he had 
no time to give to anything else. 


XVIII 


One, two, three hours slid by, and, at 
last, Howard, his eyes fixed on the gage of 
the accumulators, saw that the power was 
getting low, and began to watch anxious- 
ly for some gleam of light that, striking 
down through the water, might show a 
break in the mantle of weed overhead. In 
vain ! Everywhere blackness ruled. Sev- 
eral times he slowed down and turned otf 
the headlight, hoping that, with its efful- 
gence removed, he might see the longed- 
for gap. After each attempt he went 
back to driving the Seashark along at 
her maximum eight miles an hour. 

This could not last forever. Eapidly 
his anxiety grew. The Seashark had 
been beneath the water for four hours, 
and his accumulators were nearly bare. 
To try to break through the weed was 
dangerous, but not more so than to re- 
230 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 231 


main below until all the power was gone. 
At all risks they must reach the surface. 

For a scant ten minutes longer Howard 
held on, now very close beneath the 
mantle of weed, then stopped altogether, 
and waited for the reserve buoyancy of 
the Seashark to carry her upward. 

Slowly she rose again, and then into 
the weed. Howard could see its slimy 
fronds through the thick glass of the con- 
ning-tower. Slowly and more slowly it 
seemed to brush downward as the Sea- 
shark worked herself upward. Slowly 
and more slowly until all motion ceased, 
leaving the vessel still far below the sur- 
face. 

With a shrug of his shoulders, Howard 
pulled a lever, and in quick response 
came the throb of the pumps beneath him 
as with powerful strokes they drove out 
the water ballast and made the Seashark 
lighter. 

Under this new impulse she rose once 
more, little by little, until at last the 


232 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 

pumps sucked dry and motion ceased 
once more. Howard, peering upward, 
saw the light faintly gleaming through 
the interstices of the weed. The surface 
could be scarcely a yard overhead. 

‘‘Only a yard.” Howard muttered the 
words bitterly. ‘ ‘ Only a yard ! Might as 
well he a thousand!” Gently he started 
the propeller ; half a dozen revolutions he 
knew would hopelessly foul it; but little 
ditference that would make if the Sea- 
shark could work her way upward by its 
aid. Now forward, now backward he 
drove it, with his heart in his mouth. 

Not for long, for the drag on the shaft 
soon warned him that to go on would 
shatter the machinery and, even if they 
reached the surface, leave them helpless 
far within the bounds of the weedy sea. 
With a sudden impulse he stopped the 
engine, and waited to see whether time 
might not do what machinery had failed 
to accomplish. 

Half an hour passed, and the same 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 2SS 


frond of weed that had lain across his 
view at its beginning still held its place. 
The Sea shark was stationary. 

One desperate recourse remained, and 
Howard prepared to take it. He swung 
down into the cabin where sat the rest of 
the party forlornly waiting. Long be- 
fore they had realized that something 
was desperately wrong; but none of 
them, except perhaps the missionary, 
were of the weak-kneed type, and none 
had moved to question Howard, even dur- 
ing the age-long interval when he had sat 
in silence. 

Howard looked at them one by one, his 
eyes lingering fondly on Dorothy’s 
flower-like face. ‘‘Friends all,” he said, 
quietly, “our situation is most serious. 
I knew when we dived that in about four 
hours we must come to the surface to run 
our gas-engine and recharge our electric 
batteries. I hoped and believed that in 
four hours we would come to a place 
where there were breaks in the weed, or 


234 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


where it was so thin that we could rise 
through it. Neither has turned out to be 
true. There are no breaks, and the weed 
is so thick that it holds us down. I have 
expelled all the water-ballast, and the 
Seashark is now very buoyant; yet it 
cannot rise to the surface. We are 
scarcely a foot below it, but we can rise 
no higher. 

‘ ‘ The explanation is evident. The Sea- 
shark is nearly fifty feet long. Probably 
she intercepted a score of cables of weed 
as she rose. No doubt there is now a 
whaleback of sargassum standing above 
the water just over her. Its weight must 
be very great — too great for even our in- 
creased buoyancy to lift farther; while 
the cables across us prevent the weed 
from slipping off. The only way to get 
to the surface — that is to say, the only 
way to save all our lives, is to cut away 
the cables Lxat hold us down.” 

Howard ceased speaking, but no one 
moved. With the failing power, the 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 235 

electric lights had grown perceptibly dim- 
mer, and the voyageurs could barely see 
each other’s faces. Soon, it was evident, 
the lights would go out altogether. 

‘‘Obviously,” Howard resumed, “we 
cannot cut the cables from inside the 
ship. They can only be reached from the 
outside by some one who will leave the 
boat. 

“Fortunately, this last is not difficult. 
On the open sea it is even easy. The 
Seashark is a torpedo boat, fitted to dis- 
charge torpedoes under water. Time and 
again the crew of an injured submarine 
have escaped — all but one — by getting in- 
to the torpedo tube and being fired out 
by a moderate charge of compressed air. 
Here in the weed it will be more difficult, 
of course, but not especially dangerous. 
So” — the speaker paused and looked 
around him — “so if one of you will come 
and touch me off. I’ll see what I can do 
toward cutting those confounded cables.” 

As Howard’s voice died away, the 


2S6 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


electric lights went suddenly out, and a 
gasp of sheer horror ran through the tiny 
cabin. For a moment no one spoke ; then 
Dorothy groped her way through the 
blackness to Howard’s side. 

‘‘Not you! not you, my husband!” she 
murmured. “Not you. Let me go.” 

Howard laughed gently as he caressed 
the unseen face. “Not likely, dear,” he 
answered. 

The strident voice of the missionary 
broke through the gloom. “And if you 
are drowned in the attempt, what will 
the rest of us do!” he demanded. 

“If I fail, another must try. But I 
won’t fail.” 

“Even if that other succeed, what good 
will it do us? No one but you can run 
this boat, and we would only exchange 
death down here for death on the surface. 
No, Mr. Howard, you must not go. I 
will go.” 

“You.” 

“Yes! I.” If the missionary smiled 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 237 


bitterly, no one saw it in the darkness. 
‘‘Oh! I know yon all think I am a cow- 
ard, and perhaps I am. Certainly, I 
did not dare to oppose Captain Forbes, 

nor to But never mind. I can swim 

like a fish almost. It is my one manly 
accomplishment. I can get through the 
weed if any man can — and if I fail, you 
will have lost nothing. Come! show me 
what to do.” 

Howard groped his way to the mis- 
sionary, and wrung his hand. “I beg 
your pardon. Mr. Willoughby,” he said, 
simply, “I misunderstood you. I accept 
your offer. Come. ’ ’ 

“Wait a moment.” Dorothy’s soft 
voice sounded. “I want to thank you, 
Mr. Willoughby, and tell you that I never 
thought hard of you about Captain 
Forbes. He was a terrible man. Can — 
can I do anything in— in case you don’t 
come back ! ’ ’ Her voice trailed sobbingly 
off. 

“Nothing. I haven’t a chick or a child 


238 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


in the world, and — God bless yon, my 
dear.’’ With a last pressure of her hand 
he turned away. ‘‘Come, Mr. Howard,” 
he commanded. 

In Cimmerian gloom the two men felt 
their way to the torpedo port. “Better 
take off all your clothes, ’’counselled How- 
ard. ‘ ‘ The least thing may serve to hold 
you in the weed. Strap this knife tightly 
to your arm so you will be sure not to 
lose it. Carry this smaller one between 
your teeth. Don’t lose your head; if you 
get entangled, keep cool and cut yourself 
free. When you get to the surface look 
for the lump of weed above us ; it will be 
conspicuous enough. Cut first at one end 
of the boat, and then at the other, so that 
we can rise on an even keel. Now, if you 
are ready, climb in head-first.” 

The ten minutes that elapsed after 
Howard had “fired oif” the missionary 
were the longest that any of the party had 
ever known. Beneath the water, beneath 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 239 


the weed, in darkness so intense that it 
positively weighed, each waited in silence 
the results of the venture on which, in ail 
human probability, depended his or her 
chance for life. For if Mr. Willoughby, 
comparatively small, agile, and a good 
swimmer, could not get through the in- 
terlacing weed, the chances were that 
none of the others could do so. 

Bearing Mr. Willoughby’s clothes, 
Howard had groped his way back to the 
conning-tower, and to Dorothy’s side, and 
had found her on her knees. ‘^Oh! 
Frank! Frank!” she sobbed. ^^Let us 
pray for him. Frank ! Frank ! ’ ’ Howard 
sank beside her, and no more fervent 
petition than his was ever wafted to the 
throne of grace. 

Slowly the minutes ticked themselves 
away. Then, just as hope seemed gone, 
the Seashark gave a sudden lurch, and a 
gasp of relief arose. It required no ex- 
pert to tell her passengers that something 
was happening above the water — a some- 
thing that could have but one cause. 


240 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


Howard explained it: Willough- 

by has cut one of the cables that are hold- 
ing us down — there goes another — and 
another.’’ A faint light showed through 
the grass-filled peep-holes of the conning- 
tower; promise of the glorious burst to 
come. ^‘We are rising. We are tearing 
free. ’ ’ 

Eapidly the light grew, until a tiny 
beam from the westering sun shot 
straight through a window, and danced 
gaily about as the Seashark rocked to 
and fro on the smooth surface. At sight 
of it the women sobbed aloud. What the 
men did in the darkness can only be 
guessed. 

Eapidly Howard threw back the cover 
of the manhole, and let the blessed air of 
heaven in. Instantly Mr. Willoughby’s 
head appeared. ‘^Have you got my 
clothes there?” he demanded in a stage 
whisper. 

With a snicker of relief, Howard 
passed up the clothes and, when the mis- 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 241 

sionary was properly arrayed, called all 
the rest to come on deck. 

The Seashark was floating in the fa- 
miliar ocean of weed. No open water was 
in sight; if any was near it was not vis- 
ible from a point so low in the water. 
Wreckage floated here and there; not a 
hundred yards away was the hulk of a 
dismasted water-logged lumber schooner, 
and a little farther off were the tangled 
spars of a huge ship. 

Howard looked around him and shook 
his head. ‘‘It’s farther to clear water 
than I had thought,” he told Dorothy. 
“Not that it matters. We’ll be out to- 
morrow morning.” He turned to the 
rest. “Joyce! if you and Jackson will 
cut away the weed from around our pro- 
peller, I’ll do the rest. Mr. Willoughby 
will give you his knives. By the way, 
don’t lay them down on the water, or 
they’ll be a mile or so deep when we 
want them again.” 

Joyce turned to Willoughby, who 
16 


24)2 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


blushed. ‘^I — I’m afraid that’s just what 
I did do, Mr. Howard,” he explained, con- 
fusedly. Anyway, I’ve lost one of the 
two you gave me.” 

^^No matter, sir, I’ve got another,” in- 
terjected Joyce, as he and Jackson turned 
to their allotted task. 

Left to himself, Howard threw the 
screw-shaft out of connection, and turned 
the full power of the gas-engine to re- 
charging the electric accumulators. When 
all was running smoothly, he turned to 
the rest. 

‘Mt will be several hours, at best, be- 
fore we can start, and I think, on the 
whole, we had better not do so until tow- 
ard daylight, so as to be sure of plenty 
of light when we come up again. If you 
girls will get supper ready, we might as 
well dine.” 

Dinner — or supper — began light-heart- 
edly enough on the part of most of the 
party. Civilization seemed very near, 
and the spirits of the majority were high 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS MS 

accordingly. Only Howard, to whom res- 
cue meant something very different from 
what it did to the others, and Dorothy, 
who grieved in sympathy with him, were 
silent and distrait. Toward the end of 
the meal, Jackson, who had been un- 
wontedly talkative, suddenly awoke to the 
realization that the time was rapidly ap- 
proaching when he must again become 
the jailer of the man who had saved his 
life and his happiness. Under this in- 
cubus he suddenly shut up. 

The other three did not understand 
Howard’s situation. For some reason 
Forbes, it seemed, had not told his in- 
formation (or suspicions), about the 
naval officer, and his single reference to 
them, at the time of the wedding, had 
passed over the heads of both the Joyces 
and of Mr. Willoughby. So they chattered 
on light-heartedly enough, until the meal 
was over, and Howard dismissed them to 
sleep. 

A little later that night, when all the 


244 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


rest were sleeping, worn out by the ex- 
citement and arduous labors of the day, 
Dorothy slipped up on deck, where How- 
ard was watching the dials of his accu- 
mulators as they slowly crept toward the 
maximum. 

There was no moon, but the phospho- 
rescence of the weed filled the air with 
a weird witch-light, in which the Sea- 
shark and floating wreckage bulked black. 
So strong was the gleam that Howard 
could see the dark circles under Dor- 
othy’s eyes as she sank down by his side. 

<< There, there! sweetheart,” he whis- 
pered, gently. ^‘You ought to be getting 
your beauty sleep. We’ll probably be 
picked up to-morrow, and you must look 
your best.” 

But Dorothy refused to heed the badi- 
nage. ‘‘Oh! Frank, Frank,” she mur- 
mured, miserably. “I don’t want to be 
picked up. Can’t — can’t we put the rest 
ashore somewhere, and slip away — just 
you and I. When I think of what will 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 245 


happen Oh, Frank, I can’t bear it!” 

Howard drew her toward him, and 
tilted np her face until he could look 
down into her troubled eyes. Don’t be 
afraid, dear,” he murmured, everything 
is going to come out right. It will take 
a little time perhaps, but it will all come 
right in the end. The Providence that 
has watched over us and brought us 
through so much will not fail us now.” 

^‘But — but — to have you in prison, even 
for a day! Oh, Frank, I can’t bear it! 
You have saved Mr. Jackson’s life, res- 
cued him, made him rich — surely he will 
not be cruel enough to ” 

^^Hush! Hush! dear. Jackson must do 
his duty. I wouldn’t have him fail in 
it on my account for the world. Besides, 
I must surrender in order to prove my 
innocence. Before, I did not have the 
money to send to Porto Rico for wit- 
nesses ; now I have. There must be plenty 
of people down there who have seen the 
real husband of that poor Dolores Mon- 


^46 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


toro. Money will bring them to New 
York. Once they see me they will know 
that I am not he — even though they may 
have identified my photograph. I ran 
away before only because I knew of no 
other way to reach them. Now that I 
have another way, I must take it.” 

Dorothy was thoughtful for a moment. 
Then she nodded slowly. ‘^You are right, 
Frank,” she murmured. ‘^You always 
are. It will break my heart, but^ — it is 
the only way. I see that. It isn’t only 
your liberty I want; your honor must be 
cleared as well.” 

u There’s my brave girl!” 

Soon Dorothy spoke again. Frank,” 
she said, ‘ ‘ tell me ! How did you escape 
from prison! I don’t understand.” 

Howard hesitated. Then: ‘^I can’t tell 
you very much about it, dear. But this 
I will say: An officer on my last ship — 
one, too, for whom I am ashamed to say 
I had never cared much — stood my friend 
all through the trial, and at the end aided 
me to get away. He ” 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 247 


was Mr. Loving! I know it was 
Mr. Loving!’’ 

‘‘Hush! Even the sea- weed has ears. 
You must never say anything about it, or 
it would get him into terrible trouble. 
Yes, it was Loving. Do you know him?” 

Dorothy twisted and untwisted her 
fingers. “Yes,” she murmured. “I 
know him. It — it was on his account that 
I went to Porto Rico.” 

“On his account?” 

“Yes. He — ^he wanted to marry me, 
and father wanted me to accept him, and 
I couldn’t. I couldn’t! I knew you must 
exist somewhere, Frank — ^you — the only 
man in the world for me — and I ran away 
from New York to avoid him. You are 
not angry, are you, Frank?” 

“Angry! At what? But I’m afraid 
I’ve made a terrible botch of things; 
saddled a convict husband on you, and 
robbed my best friend of his bride.” 

Dorothy raised her hand to his lips. 
“Hush! dear,” she said. “I wouldn’t 


^48 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


exchange my husband for any man in 
the wide world; and as for Mr. Loving 
— ^well, he couldn’t be robbed of what he 
never had, and never could have had.” 

The note of the engines suddenly 
changed, and Howard, bending over, 
glanced at the accumulator dial. ‘‘The 
battery is fully charged, dear,” he said, 
as he shut off the engine. “And it is 
certainly time to rest.” 


XIX 


Long before dawn Howard was astir. 
Possessing in an eminent degree tbe not 
very rare faculty of being able to awake 
at any hour desired, he had set his mental 
alarm-clock for four o ’clock, and, in spite 
of his fatigue, had awakened within fif- 
teen minutes of that time. 

Without disturbing any of the others, 
who lay stretched in more or less uneasy 
postures on the comfortless floor of the 
Seashark, he made his way first to the 
conning-tower for a last examination of 
the fixtures there ; then to the deck, where 
a brief inspection showed that the pro- 
peller was still clear ; and, at last, to the 
pilot’s seat, where, taking his place, he 
pulled the lever that let the water into 
the ballast tanks. 

Swiftly the tanks filled, and silently 
and smoothly the Seashark sank down 
249 


250 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 

through the water. For a time the weed 
scraped against her sides, but soon this 
ceased, and the electric beam showed only 
black water before the tiny windows of 
her conning-tower. When fifty feet 
of depth was registered on the gage, 
Howard turned on the power and, gath- 
ering way, the Seashark drove along be- 
neath the sea. 

Three hours later, when the weary 
sleepers began to stir, he was still at 
his post, tirelessly staring before him. As 
the day waxed, a faint light, interspersed 
with occasional stronger beams, filtered 
down from above, giving token that the 
canopy of weed had grown thin, and was 
broken here and there by channels of 
open water. Soon it would be safe to 
go to the surface. 

Suddenly, with terrifying swiftness, 
came a sound and a shock that shook the 
Seashark from stem to stem. Simul- 
taneously the black hull of a great ship 
showed across the path, not a hundred 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 251 

feet away. There was no time to stop; 
no time to check the speed; scarcely time 
to deflect the course. But quicker than 
thought, quicker than lightning, auto- 
matically, Howard ^s trained brain and 
hand met the danger. 

The horizontal rudders sent the Sea- 
shark diving down, down, down, in a 
desperate endeavor to pass beneath the 
obstruction — down till Howard saw clear 
water in front of him. 

Under the keel of the ship sped the Sea- 
shark, still diving desperately. For one 
agonizing instant she touched, scraped, 
shrieked; then tore free. 

But the danger was not passed ; though, 
with reversed rudders, the Seashark 
strove to beat her way upward. A 
glance at the dials showed that the depth 
was increasing — not diminishing; a 
glance behind showed that the black hull 
was ominously close. The slant of the 
Seashark grew steeper, steeper; almost 
it stood on end. The rumble of falling 


252 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 

objects came from below, followed by 
startled shrieks, as the sleepers, rudely 
awakened, slid in a tangled heap to the 
after-end of the boat. Howard clung 
wildly to the steering-wheel to save him- 
self from being hurled down upon the 
rest. As he clung, confused, not under- 
standing, the tiny vessel was shaken like 
a rat in a dog’s jaws. Her machinery 
began to tear loose from its bed. Mere 
peas in a pod, her passengers tumbled 
right and left as willed by the mighty 
power that grasped them. 

After turmoil peace. Howard pulled 
his dazed wits together to the realization 
that the Seashark was lying quiescent on 
the surface of the water, though by no 
means on an even keel. Her engines had 
stopped, and her lights were out. Only 
a faint glimmer through the windows of 
the conning-tower illumined the scene of 
wreckage around him. Wild with anx- 
iety, he lowered himself into the black- 
ness of the sleeping room, and called 
Dorothy’s name. 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 25S 


*^Here I am, Frank, came the answer. 

Howard groped his way toward the 
sound. ^‘Are you hurtT’ he asked in 
trembling accents. 

‘‘No! I think not — certainly not seri- 
ously.” The girPs tones were broken, 
hut brave as ever. 

“The rest of you? Is everybody alive? 
Answer as I call. Joyce?” 

“I’m alive, sor, and so is Kathleen.” 

“Jackson?” 

“Here.” 

“Mr. Willoughby?” 

“I, too, have escaped.” 

Howard drew a long breath. “Thank 
God ! We seem to have our lives, at any 
rate.” 

“What was it, sor?” 

“I’m not certain. But I think a wreck 
must have chosen the very moment of 
our passage to sink, and must have drawn 
us down into her vortex. We escaped 
at last, and are now at the surface. But 
I fear our machinery is ruined. I’ll 
open the manhole.” 


254 Trtii; iSlLE OF DEAD SHIPS 

Turning, Howard clambered back to bis 
perch, and tried to push back the bolts. 
They were badly jammed, and it took him 
some time to loosen them; but at last 
they gave way, and he shoved back the 
cover and thrust out his head. 

The Seashark was rolling gently on 
smooth weed-clear water. A quarter of 
a mile away lay a white cruiser, and not 
a hundred yards distant was a boat 
rapidly approaching. 

Howard rubbed his eyes. ‘‘Ahoy, the 
boat,” he called. 

The officer in charge gasped. “Way 
enough,” he ordered. “Ahoy, the sub- 
marine. Where in heaven did you come 
from!” 

“From mighty near the other iDlace,” 
answered Howard grimly. ‘ ‘ Did you tor- 
pedo that wreck ! ’ ’ 

“That’s what we did. We’re destroy- 
ing derelicts, and hunting for a party of 
castaways from the Queen. Do you know 
anything about them!” 



“this is, or, rather, was — MISS FAIRFAX,” HE EXPLAINED. 

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THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 255 


Howard nodded affirmatively in answer 
to the officer’s question. ‘‘Yes,” he an- 
swered. “We are the castaways — ^we and 
three others who escaped with us in this 
submarine from the little king of the Sar- 
gasso Sea. I suppose you know the story 
that I sent by wireless!” 

The boat scraped along. “Know it! I 
should say so,” exclaimed the startled 
officer. ‘ ‘ The whole country knows it. I 
suppose you are ” 

“Frank Howard. Come, Dorothy,” 
Howard climbed to the deck, and helped 
the girl to follow him. “This is, or, 
rather, was — Miss Fairfax,” he explained. 
“And you ” 

The officer suppressed a whistle of 
admiration at sight of Dorothy’s flower- 
like face. “I’m McCully!” he answered, 
as he stood up and took offi his cap. “I 
say! This is awfully lucky. Colonel 
Fairfax will be wild with delight.” 

“My father! Where is he!” 


256 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


‘‘On board the Duluth, yonder. The 
navy department ordered us to look for 
you, and he came along. There are a 
dozen searching for you.^’ 

Dorothy’s head swam. The month of 
stress was over, and the revulsion of feel- 
ing was too great not to affect her. Tears 
started to her eyes as she turned to How- 
ard. “Oh! Frank!” she cried. “Father 
is here.” 

“Yes. He’s here, sure,” interjected 
Mr. McCully, “and if you’ll get into this 
boat we’ll take you to him in a jiffy.” 

Dorothy looked at Howard inquiringly, 
and he nodded. “Yes, you’d better go,” 
he assented. “You and Mrs. Joyce and 
Willoughby, perhaps. The rest of us 
will stay here for the present. Mr. Mc- 
Cully, will you kindly ask your captain 
if he cannot come alongside us ? The Sea- 
shark, though damaged by your torpedo, 
is still valuable, and, besides, we have 
about two million dollars in gold bars on 
board of her.” 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 257 


The lieutenant looked his astonishment. 
What manner of man was this who car- 
ried two millions of gold about in a sub- 
marine. ^^Two millions!’^ he gasped. 

‘^Yes! We found an old Spanish gal- 
leon with five or six millions on her, and 
brought away all we could. Look ! 
There’s another boat coming. Is that 
your father on her, Dorothy? And — 
why, yes, it’s Loving, too, isn’t it? How 
frightfully ill he is looking.” 

Another boat was close at hand. Dor- 
othy looked at her, and clasped her hands 
with excitement. ‘ ‘ Oh ! It is ! ” she cried. 
‘‘Father! Father! Don’t you know me?” 

The gray-bearded civilian stood up. 
“Dorothy! Dorothy!” he trumpeted. “Is 
it 3^ou! Is it really you?” 

“Yes! Yes!” As the boat touched the 
Seashark, the girl fairly sprang into her 
father’s arms. “Oh! father! father!” 
she cried. “How good it is to see you.” 

Meanwhile, Lieutenant McCully had 
turned to Howard and the others, who 
17 


258 THE ISLE OE DEAD SHIPS 


had now climbed up on the deck. ‘^The 
Duluth is moving, ’ ’ he explained. ‘ ‘ Cap- 
tain Morehouse probably intends to come 
alongside without being asked. Hadn’t 
you all better get into this boat, and let 
my men fasten your manhole down? The 
waves from the Duluth might swamp her, 
you know.” 

Thank you. If you’ll be so kind. But 
first let me present my fellow travelers.” 

In a few moments the Seashark was 
made safe against swamping, and her 
former passengers were about to enter 
the cutter, when Dorothy called to How 
ard: Frank, dear, I want you.” 

Everybody started. Not one there was 
ignorant of .Howard’s record, and the 
use of his Christian name by the girl was 
somewhat surprising. 

Frank, dear!” cried the girl, alive 
with excitement. ^‘This is my father. 
Father, this is Lieutenant Frank How- 
ard, whO' saved me from death and from 
worse than death. See, I wear his ring.” 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 259 


She held up her hand, and, at the sight 
of the plain gold band. Colonel Fairfax’s 
outstretched hand dropped heavily to his 
side. wedding ring,” he gasped. 

‘‘Yes, father. I am not Dorothy Fair- 
fax any more. I am Dorothy Howard 
now. Mr. Willoughby married us day be- 
fore yesterday.” 

All Colonel Fairfax’s coolness; all the 
aplomb that had made him a master of 
men; all his traditional self-possession 
dropped from him, and he stood stam- 
mering like any schoolboy. 

Dorothy’s eyes sparkled. “It’s all 
right, father,” she declared. “Frank 
married me to save me from that horrible 
Forbes. He didn’t want to do so because 
of that ridiculous accusation against him, 
but he couldn’t help it. I insisted on it. 
Shake hands with him. You and I are 
going to find the real murderer, and clear 
his name.” 

“But — but — Mr. Loving ” 

Loving, his face pale, but with a forced 


260 THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


smile on his lips, struck in. ‘ ‘Hallo, How- 
ard, old man,” he said, holding out his 
hand. “I was just waiting my chance to 
speak to you. Frank Howard is all right, 
colonel,” he continued earnestly, turning 
to the elder man. “IVe told you so be- 
fore, you know.” 

Colonel Fairfax had recovered his 
poise somewhat. “Well,” he said, “this 
isnT the time or place to talk about it, 
though it is the time to thank you, Mr. 
Howard, for saving my girl’s life. It 
nearly killed me when I lost her. Come, 
let’s get on board — Good Heavens! 
Loving! What’s the matter r’ 

Loving’s face had grown white as 
death, and his distended eyes seemed 
popping from their sockets. Following 
his gaze, the others saw Mr. Willoughby 
picking his way along the Seashark tow- 
ard them. 

“Ah! Mr. Howard,” he said, holding 
out his hand to Loving, “I’m glad to see 
you here, for, of course, it means that you 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 261 

must have cleared yourself of that ter- 
rible charge. Quite a coincidence having 
another of the same name in our little 
party, isn’t it! I had meant to speak to 
him about you, but we have been in such 
a turmoil that I haven’t had the chance.” 

The changing expressions in the faces 
of his listeners suddenly caught the good 
man’s attention. ‘‘Why! What is the 
matter!” he explained. “I — hope I 
don’t Surely you have cleared your- 

self of that charge, Mr. Howard!” 

Loving’s dry lips moved, but no sound 
came. The other men, too, were stricken 
dumb. Only Dorothy found breath. 

“This gentleman is Mr. Loving, Mr. 
Willoughby,” she gasped. “Why do you 
call him Howard!” 

The missionary turned a bewildered 
face to the girl. “I don’t understand,” 
he stammered. “I knew this gentleman 
as Mr. Howard in Porto Eico, where I 
married him to Dolores Montoro. Later 
she followed him to New York, and he 


26S THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 


was reported to have murdered her. I 
was coming to testify when I was 
wrecked, and ’’ 

Loving burst suddenly into a fit of jar- 
ring laughter. ^‘You needn’t say any 
more, Mr. Willoughby,” he cackled. 
‘‘You’ve put the noose around my neck 
all right. Yes, I did it, I did it. I married 
that she-devil under your name, Howard, 
and when she followed me to New York 
I killed her. I didn’t mean to get you 
into it, but you got a letter she intended 
for me, and butted in just in time to get 
accused. You’ll bear me witness that I 
tried to save you ; and I would have done 
it, too, if those fools in Porto Eico hadn’t 
identified your photograph as the man 
who married Dolores. All smooth-faced 
men in uniform look alike to them, I sup- 
pose. Wei], it’s all up now, and I’m glad 
of it. Maybe you won’t believe me, hut 
I haven’t had a happy moment since you 
were arrested. I’m not so bad as you 
think; that woman was a fiend and — ^but 


THE ISLE OF DEAD SHIPS 263 

there’s the ship. I’ll go on board and 
write ont a formal confession.” 

Unseen, the Dulnth had approached 
and, as she ran smoothly alongside, Lov* 
ing caught a Jacob ’s-ladder swinging 
from a boom, and ran np it to the deck. 

Before any one conld follow, the 
Dulnth swung past, and, when a moment 
later her reversed screw brought her to 
a halt, the sound of a pistol-shot in her 
ward-room told that Loving had signed 
his confession with his blood. 


EPILOGUE 


The Sargasso Sea will soon be robbed 
of half its terrors. The Seashark Wreck- 
ing Company, with Howard at its head, 
and all his party as share-holders, has 
been formed to recover the great wealth 
still existing on the derelicts in the sea. 
It has opened communication with the 
wreck-pack by a paddle-wheel steamer 
that is expected to maintain a reasonably 
clear channel through the weed. The 
company is projecting a series of relief 
stations, and will keep up a constant 
patrol all round the wreck-pack. The ex- 
pense, of course, will be enormous, but 
there is no doubt that the enterprise will 
meet it and will pay an enormous profit 
besides, even if not a single other treas- 
ure ship is found. 

A message just received by wireless 
from the sea says that the first steamer 

264 


EPILOGUE 


265 


of the company is about to start back to 
New York with a tremendously valuable 
cargo of salvage. It adds that Forbes 
and all his men have begged for passage, 
and that it will be granted them. The 
money left on the galleon, which Forbes 
was forced to divide, has made them all 
comparatively rich, and they are anxious 
to get back to civilization to spend their 
money. Their departure leaves Howard 
and his friends with an undisputed title 
to the salvage of the Isle of Dead Ships. ' 


THE END. 



DELIGHTFULLY FASCINATING 

The 

Princess Dehra 

By JOHN REED SCOTT 

In which we meet again the characters of his dashing suc- 
cess, “ The Colonel of the Red Huzzars” (Eleven editions). 


M r. SCOTT displays uncommon dramatic skill 
in the handling of his characters — the same, 
by the way, as those who were met in his 
“ Colonel of the Red Huzzars.” It is a continuation 
of that former dashing romance of an American army 
officer who turns out to have royal blood in his 
veins which eventually wins for him a throne and 
enthrones him in the heart of a charming princess ; 
mystery, intrigue, plot, and counterplot, all are 
here, and the reader will find his attention held until 
the very last page, when loyalty and the wit of a 
woman triumph in the face of even “the Book of 
Laws” and a clever rascal. 

“ Here is a new story to set the pulses tingling.” 

—Philadelphia Press. 

“Since Hope’s ‘ Prisoner of Zenda,’ nothing better has been 
done than this new story by the author of ‘ The Colonel of the 
Red Huzzars.’ ” — Cincinnati Enquirer. 

“ There are situations involving the principal characters 
which are ingenious in conception and cleverly woven into the 
story by essential and natural sequence, and at these situations 
the reader feels a desire to continue the story, even if the house 
be burning. He has produced a story that is interesting and 
exciting without being overdrawn.” 

— Boston Evening Transcript. 

Four Full-page Illustrations in Color hy Clarence F. Underwood. 
l2mo. Decorated Cloth^ $T.JO. 


J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS PHILADELPHIA 



THE DASHING NOVEL 


THE 

COLONEL 
OF THE 

RED HUZZARS 

By 

JOHN REED SCOTT 


Stirring adventures, courtly intrigue, and fencing both 
of sword and wit, fill the pages of this story. The plot is 
built upon a wager between Major Dalberg, U. S. A., and 
a friend that within a certain time both would be dining 
with the king and dancing with the princess royal of Va- 
leria. Strangely enough, Dalberg proves to be of the blood 
royal of Valeria, is reinstated into his ancestral rights, and 
when matters are about to reach a climax, the pretender 
steps in, and there ensues an encounter between American 
pluck and unscrupulous cleverness. 


“ There’s not a dull page in it .” — The Index, Pittsburg. 

‘‘ A slap-dashing vacation-day romance .” — Evening Sun, New York. 
“ So naively fresh in its handling, so plausible through its naturalness, 
that it comes like a mountain breeze across the far-spreading desert of 
similar romances.” — Gazette- Times, Pittsburg. 


Illustrations in Colors by CLARENCE F. UNDERWOOD 
12mo. Decorated cloth, $1.50 


J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY PhOadelphia 


BEAU BROCADE 

By BARONESS O R C Z Y 

! Author of “ The Scarlet Pimpernel f IVill Repay f etc. 


A captivating romance of love and chivalry — the 
adventures of a charming highwayman of the days 
of the English Pretender. 

‘‘Faith and courage make the story of ‘Beau 
Brocade ’ a very interesting one. The hero is delight- 
fully fascinating — bubbling over with exuberance of youth ; 
nothing is a hardship for him. He reminds one of Dumas’s 
1 famous D’Artagnan, and most especially in his fighting 
escapades. Gloriously dramatic is the fight in the forge, 
when, by his prowess. Beau Brocade holds at bay a lot of 
1 redcoats, escaping on his steed ‘ Jack O’Lantern.* ” 

— N, Y. American Book Review Contest. 

“ The story is so well told, so full of life and actiohi, 
that one never loses interest from start to finish.” 

— Pittsburgh Dispatch. 

“ Let no one begin reading this tale late in the even^ 

I ing, for there is no stopping-place till the end, and the end 
is worth reaching.” — The Congregationalist^ Boston. 

! “ The illustrations in color are unusually attractive.” 

I — Chicago Tribune. 

FOUR FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOR BY 
' CLARENCE F. UNDERWOOD, 

i i2mo. Cloth, ^1.50. 


J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS PHILADELPHIA 


When Kings Go Forth 
to Battle 

By WILLIAM WALLACE WHITELOCK 

Author of ** Tht Literary Guillotine^' etc* 


A small German principality is the seat of 
exciting warfare. An unscrupulous king and a con- 
niving ‘^minister of interior improvements’" find i 
their match in two invincible Americans who keep ^ 
the secret of a young prince’s hiding-place, and with ■ 
characteristic American energy join in a revolutionary 
plot to unseat the reigning monarch and place the 1 
prince upon the throne, || 

A story that grasps our interest with its first j 
chapter and causes us to follow breathlessly until the 
climax.’^ — Baltimore Sun, 

^^The prettily tinted illustrations by Frank H. 
Desch are particularly praiseworthy.’’ 

— Philadelphia Press. 

‘‘Told with energy and color, and it is well worth 
reading.” — San Francisco Argonaut. 

“Some excellent illustrations in color add to the 
beauty of the volume.” — Nashville American. 

THREE FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOR BY 
FRANK H. DESCH. lamo. Cloth, jjJi.so. 

% 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS :: :: PHILADELPHIA 


THE SMUGGLER 

By ELLA MIDDLETON TYBOUT 

Author of **Tbe Wife of the Secretary of State ” and ^^Fohtown People 

This is not, as the title might suggest, a tale of 
daring deeds on the deep, but a blithesome story of the 
adventures of three American girls while spending 
their summer vacation on a Canadian island. They 
become involved in a series of strange happenings by 
a band of clever smugglers who pose as their friends, 
using them as a blind in their smuggling operations. 
There is a pretty love story interwoven with mystery, 
adventure, and humor, that holds the reader’s interest 
from cover to cover. 


“ The characters are mightily convincing, and the rapid-action 
plot makes the most indifferent reader ‘ sit up ’ until he has 
devoured the last word.’* — Times-Dispatch, Richmondy Fa, 

happy blending of Stocktonesque humor and Anna 
Katherine Green mystery.” — New York Globe, 

“A brightly written story for those who like light and agreeable 
fiction that is free from coarseness.” — Boston Budget and Beacon, 


ILLUSTRATED IN COLOR BY HOWARD EVERETT SMITH. 
[ i2mo. Cloth, 1 1. 50. 


I J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS PHILADELPHIA 

I 


The Affair at Pine Court 

By NELSON RUST GILBERT 

A truly American novel of love and mystery, tak- 
ing place at the Adirondack lodge of a New York 
millionaire. It is a story of living people set against 
a background of October-painted forests, azure lakes, 
and limpid trout-streams. 

The reader lives through such exciting days in the 
depths of this great forest, with characters so well 
drawn and so intensely human as to seem alive. The 
arrival of a German count gives direction and impetus 
to incipient love affairs. He arouses the greed of 
the humble natives by exhibiting the wonderful 

Lens of the Gau in the presence of his host’s 
butler. These envious enemies of the rich pleasure- 
seekers at the court put the house in a stage of siege, 
during which each guest displays his or her real char- 
acter. The many incidents of the forest war are told 
with admirable skill, and a happily ending love affair 
keeps the reader’s attention taut and eager. 

“ A tale of mystery, crisply and briskly told.’* 

— Leader, Cleveland, 

** An unusual story in which the author has pictured real men, 
who ring true in the time of danger.” — Buffalo Express, 

” A book whose plot is well conceived and wrought out, whose 
craftsmanship is excellent, and whose ability to hold the interest to 
the last page is undisputed.” — TLe Interior, Chicago, 

A book to be read not only for its strong human interest, but 
for its true picture of life in the Adirondacks.” 

— Argonaut, San Francisco, 

THREE FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOR 
BY FRANK H. DESCH. 

i2mo. Cloth, ;^i.5o. 

J. B. lipeincqt;t company 

PUBLISHERS « ^ PHILADELPHIA 













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